Lloyd Kaufman Claims Troma 'Birthed the MCU'
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- Lloyd Kaufman co-founded Troma Entertainment in 1974 with Michael Herz, building what the source calls the longest-running independent film studio in history.
- Kaufman, now 80, received a Raindance Icon Award late last week; his daughter flew to London to accept it because he was too busy working to travel.
- Troma discovered major Hollywood talent including James Gunn, Oliver Stone, Billy Bob Thornton, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kevin Costner, per Kaufman.
- Kaufman claimed "The Troma Universe has very much, I think, birthed the Marvel Cinematic Universe," citing a Stan Lee foreword that compared Toxic Avenger's impact to Spider-Man's.
- James Gunn, who co-wrote "Tromeo and Juliet" for Troma, now runs DC Comics, per Kaufman's account of his mentee's trajectory.
- Kaufman is currently directing "The Power of Positive Murder," a black-and-white, loose adaptation of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" he describes as "rather nihilistic."
- Troma launched the Troma Now streaming platform roughly 20 years ago, which Kaufman says is small but growing and gives the studio a "predictable six months" of financial runway for the first time in 53 years.
Why it matters: Kaufman's claim that Troma birthed the superhero blockbuster era is backed by a concrete talent pipeline — James Gunn co-wrote "Tromeo and Juliet" at Troma before taking the helm at DC Comics — and by Stan Lee's own foreword equating Toxic Avenger with Spider-Man's cultural impact. A studio that pioneered VHS distribution and survived into streaming by adapting early (David Schultz pushed DVDs "when the machines hadn't even been in people's homes yet") proves the scrappy indie model still works.
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