Starring Peter Dinklage, the new incarnation of The Toxic Avenger sat on the proverbial shelf for quite a while. The movie went into production all the way back in 2021, and it made its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in 2023... but it has had a tough road securing distribution in large part due to its graphic content. Finally, the wait for the film is over, as the unrated cut is in theaters this weekend – but during the long wait, you can be sure that writer/director Macon Blair had a great deal of Batgirl-related anxiety.
We're now only a couple of years removed from Warner Bros. making the decision to cancel plans to release Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah's Batgirl starring Leslie Grace and Brendan Fraser, and Blair has confessed in an interview with IndieWire that the fate of that project haunted him as distribution was sought for The Toxic Avenger. He says that unceremonious end of that film's journey and the plight of the now-rescued Coyote vs. Acme fueled his fear that his movie would never see the light of day. Said the filmmaker,
