The Crow Reboot Finally Reveals First Look at Bill Skaarsgard in Iconic Role

Bill Skarsgård's Eric Draven is here. Lionsgate has finally revealed a first look at their long-awaited revival of The Crow, a franchise that had a surprisingly long life throughout the '90s and early 2000s. An adaptation of the James O'Barr indie comic of the same name, The Crow has been one of the most troubled productions in recent memory, trading off directors, stars, and even studios numerous times over the life of its development and production. The movie stars Skarsgård (IT), singer-songwriter FKA twigs (Honeyboy), and Danny Huston (Succession) and is reportedly a full restart of the franchise, meaning that it's likely adapting (at least loosely) the same set of comics as the first The Crow movie, which was released in 1994.

That first movie was a phenomenon, with a hit soundtrack and an aesthetic that felt like it was five years ahead of its time. The movie spawned three sequels, The Crow: City of Angels (1996); The Crow: Salvation (2000); and The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005).

The revived The Crow has gone through a number of directors, stars, and even studios in the last decade in its long and troubled road to the big screen. Even after news came out that the movie had wrapped production, it didn't seem like a real thing that people would be actually able to watch.

"I think the beauty of Bill is that he has a disturbing beauty, and as he transforms through his loss he becomes this thing that even he can't control," director Rupert Sanders told Vanity Fair. "It's that famous line: 'Whoever fights monsters must be careful that they don't become one.' That look was me in the '90s when we were squat-raving in London, [mixed with some modern influences] like Post Malone and Lil Peep. I hope people who are 19 today look at him and go, 'That guy is us.'"  

You can see the first look at 2024's The Crow (which leans hard into the The Cure-infused aesthetic of the character) below.

"It's still very much a live property," James O'Barr during a 2015 panel hosted by ComicBook.com, shortly after one of the times the production fell apart. "The company, Pressman Films, that owns The Crow film and TV rights, licensed it to a studio named Relativity. And Relativity made like a hundred bad movies and lost money so now they're in financial trouble. So the producers are just going to take it to another studio if Relativity can't get backing again. It's going to happen. I talked to Pressman Films a couple of weeks ago and they said within two or three weeks, we should have it placed at a new studio. Because the day Relativity announced that they were having financial problems, there were like a dozen other studios that called about getting The Crow property. it definitely will happen."

Brandon Lee, the son of Hollywood icon Bruce Lee, starred in the original The Crow movie, and was tragically killed on set of the film when a prop gun misfired. Subsequent films went direct to video and starred Vincent Pérez, Eric Mabius, and Ed Furlong in the title role. As in the comics, the actors have played various different iterations of The Crow, with Eric Draven being one of three. Mark Dascascos took on the role in a TV adaptation, titled The Crow: Stairway to Heaven.

"Brandon was an original voice and I think he will always be synonymous with The Crow and I hope he's proud of what we've done and how we've brought the story back again," Sanders said. "His soul is very much alive in this film. There's a real fragility and beauty to his version of the Crow, and I think Bill feels like he is a successor to that."  

The Crow is directed by Rupert Sanders (Foundation, Ghost in the Shell, Snow White and The Huntsman) and written by Zach Baylin (King Richard, upcoming Creed III). Producers are Molly Hassell (Braven, Terminal), Victor Hadida (Resident Evil and Silent Hill franchises), John Jencks (Honest Thief, Guns Akimbo), and Edward R. Pressman (American Psycho, The Crow, Wall Street).