Something about The Crow reboot has always been a bit of a cursed affair. The original 1994 film was marred in tragedy after the on-set death of its star Brandon Lee due to a faulty prop gun. And later, it's three sequels The Crow: City of Angels (1996) The Crow: Salvation (2000) and The Crow: Wicked Prayer (2005) were about as well-received as a bag of dog poo on your doorstep.
Conversations about a huge remake have been swirling since 2008, with the property changing hands and directions multiple times. Big leading names were cycled through over the years: Mark Wahlberg, Bradley Cooper, James McAvoy, Luke Evans and Jason Momoa were all attached to star at one point. Movement on the project never went totally stagnant, but after a while, it looked more and more likely that The Crow would never actually take flight.
But, in 2022, it was officially announced that the reboot would be happening with a director and stars firmly attached. We've been burned before, though, and who could say whether this attempt would actually achieve lift-off? However, with the film officially shot and distribution secured, it looks like we'll finally be getting a new version of The Crow. Here's everything we know about the reboot of The Crow so far.
What is The Crow about?
The Crow is your classic comic-book-to-movie adaptation, but before any of that was a dominating monoculture. The original graphic series was published in 1989 by James O'Barr.
The story follows a musician, Eric Draven, who, after witnessing the rape and murder of his fiancé and then being murdered by the attackers himself, is resurrected by a mystical crow who has the power to keep souls on earth if they died in tragic circumstances.
After being brought back from the dead, Draven goes on a revenge mission trying to track down the gang who killed them, all the while guided by a crow. One by one he picks off his attackers while being pursued, and then aided by, a sympathetic cop.
Unlike many of the comic book adaptations we see on screen today, there's little morality threaded through the core of The Crow, however – he's simply a hurt man trying to seek revenge.
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Who is starring in The Crow?
The Crow's long roster of maybe-stars has been finally punctuated by none other than Bill Skarsgard, which is interesting considering, at one point, his brother Alexander's name was tossed into the ring. Skarsgard will be taking on the role of Eric Draven and, much like the psychotic clown that made him famous in IT, he will be donning the white face paint of the undead character.
Elsewhere in the cast is FKA Twigs, who will star as Shelly Webster, the fiancé Draven seeks revenge for. While she's best known for music, FKA Twigs has dabbled in acting but The Crow will be by far her biggest credit to date.
Hong Kong actress Isabella Wei will play the role of Zadie in the film, who is presumably the young girl that Eric and Shelly looked after while they were alive. In undisclosed roles, you've got Danny Huston, whose villainous smirk is more or less made for horror. He also has an interesting connection to the film, as his nephew, Boardwalk Empire's Jack Huston, was also attached to play Draven in 2015.
Behind the camera will be Rupert Sanders, best known for directing Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Ghost in the Shell (2017) and the pilot episode of Apple TV+'s Foundation.
When will The Crow be released?
Now it's all well and good to have a The Crow movie, but given its track record, we need to make sure we're actually going to see it one day! However, it's been revealed that Lionsgate has secured US distribution for the movie and it is set to hit screens on 7 June this year, with a UK date yet to be announced.
