Elijah Wood's Toxic Avenger Look Is Giving Twitter Serious Gollum Vibes
The first look at "The Lord of the Rings" star Elijah Wood's character from the upcoming reboot of "The Toxic Avenger" has spawned some precious remarks from fans on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The film is being dubbed a "reimagining" of the 1984 cult classic by James Gunn's filmmaking mentor, Lloyd Kaufman of Troma Entertainment. In the movie, a scrawny janitor, Melvin Ferd Junko III (Mitch Cohen), becomes a mutated, musclebound tutu-wearing superhero after falling into a drum of toxic waste. Peter Dinklage stars in the title role in the reboot, while Wood, according to Entertainment Weekly, will play the Toxic Avenger's nemesis, Fritz Garbinger.
The publication includes a first-look photo of Wood's character, who sports long but thinning black, greasy hair with a stringy patch of long locks in the middle of his bald scalp. Garbinger also has a creepy smile, revealing some rotting and blackened teeth and dark rings around his sunken eyes. In an interview with EW, "The Toxic Avenger" writer-director Macon Blair describes Garbinger as "sort of Riff Raff from 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show' and the Danny DeVito Penguin [from 'Batman Returns'] mixed together."
Fans on X, however, reacted to the photo with another character in mind — one from Wood's "Lord of the Rings" past. "Thought that was Gollum for a second there," @Folabz_ tweeted, while @z_fergis noted, "This is that test makeup for Frodo as [G]ollum." @OyinsCollins succinctly tweeted "MY PRECIOUS," while @Trace_Cohen got straight to the point and simply posted a photo of the scrawny "Lord of the Rings" villain.
Tweets also noted Wood's transformation into Gollum
More tweets in reaction to the first look of Elijah Wood as Fritz Garbinger called attention to how Gollum looked before his startling transformation. While Gollum is first brought to life via Andy Serkis' motion-capture performance in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, director Peter Jackson features Serkis as Sméagol in a flashback sequence before he decays into the guise of the villainous creature. As such, @0nlyMeez tweeted, "[Elijah] Wood playing Gollum in his early years," while @ava_palindrome posted, "[Elijah's] transformation into Gollum is almost complete."
In addition, a tweet by @DakinMorgan is accompanied by a Photoshopped picture of Wood that looks like Sméagol-slash-Gollum that read, "Glad they were able to reuse that Elijah Wood Gollum makeup that they didn't get to put in LOTR." Meanwhile, @MelanieJESC tweeted, Damn Frodo is evolving to Gollum."
Of course, more Wood comparisons to Gollum are bound to come when the film — which is still awaiting a release date — hits theaters. A previous "Toxic Avenger" first-look preview promises some messy mayhem ahead.