The first trailer for The Crow reboot debuted last week, and needless to say, the internet reacted to Bill Skarsgård’s mulleted and heavily tattooed Eric in spectacular fashion. To date, the trailer has received a staggering 97,000 dislikes and only 66,000 likes on YouTube, proving that this long-gestating reboot of Alex Proyas’ 1994 cult classic may not be the home run fans were expecting. To further rub salt in the wound, Proyas tore into the movie in a now-deleted Facebook post (via Deadline) and Rochelle Davis, who plays Sarah in the original film, also criticized the remake to TMZ. While everyone is entitled to their opinion, the strong reaction toward Skarsgård’s Eric demonstrates how most people missed the point of The Crow in the first place.
There’s no disputing Brandon Lee’s long-haired, trenchcoat-wearing Eric Draven inspired three decades’ worth of Halloween costumes. Mention The Crow to anyone and they will remember the actor’s iconic look and unforgettable face paint design, even if they know nothing about the movie or its plot. It also helps that Lee puts in a transcending performance as the character, which makes stepping into Eric’s boots a difficult task for any actor to follow.
That said, there’s something important to remember here: Lee’s look and performance as Eric deviates from the original comic book created by James O’Barr. In an interview with Arlene R. Weiss from December 1994, O’Barr revealed how he was involved in the movie and had about 70% input in how it turned out, though he admitted hesitancy about the producers turning Eric into a rock star. By design, the character had an unknown backstory in the comics to make him more relatable to the readers.
“First they had him as a rock star and I said absolutely not, that that kind of alienates him from the everyday person,” he said. “Doing that instead makes him an icon and puts him up on a pedestal. And in the book he’s intended just to be like a blue-collar worker.”
Lee’s performance mesmerized O’Barr, who appreciated how he made the character his own. So much so that, after Lee’s death, the creator said, “I can’t see anybody else doing it.” Case closed then about the need for a reboot, right? Not so fast.
After the success of the first Crow and the aura of the movie because of Lee’s tragic death during filming, Hollywood “Hollywooded” and capitalized on it with several sequels and even a television series. The Crow was now a franchise, ripe for the plucking of dollars and cents. None of these efforts managed to even touch the toes of the original, though, and a full-blown reboot was mooted after the spectacular 2005 failure known as The Crow: Wicked Prayer.
For years, the project bounced around the film industry, attaching the names of stars such as Jason Momoa, Tom Hiddleston, and even Luke Evans to the movie. Of course, any talk about a reboot upset fans, who refused to accept the thought of anyone else but Lee as Eric. In 2014, O’Barr’s stance toward the topic softened after he realized no one was trying to remake the 1994 film beat-for-beat. He tried to alleviate fears by explaining what the movie was meant to be. (Note: At the time of the interview, it was set to be directed by F. Javier Gutiérrez, with Evans starring as Eric.)
“Lastly, we’re not remaking the movie, we’re readapting the book,” O’Barr told Sean C.W. Korsgaard. “My metaphor is that there is a Bela Lugosi Dracula and there’s a Francis Ford Coppola Dracula, they use the same material, but you still got two entirely different films.”
O’Barr makes an excellent analogy here, which also holds true to what director Rupert Sanders is doing with 2024’s The Crow. From the trailer alone, it’s evident the story is different from the original film and the characters aren’t the same. Plus, Skarsgård is certainly not imitating Lee’s Eric in look or behavior, so this film doesn’t negate what came before – or what will inevitably come after.
At its core, The Crow concept features three Rs: Romance, rebirth, and revenge. It’s about someone’s heart being crushed to the point in which they defy death to come back and inflict violence on those who dared to get between true love. The names of Eric and Shelly could be changed to anyone else here and the effect remains the same because The Crow is more than a person – it’s a theme. That’s exactly what the original film did too — reimagine O’Barr’s tale but keeping the core ideals intact.
The reboot isn’t trying to retell the same story as the 1994 film, nor should it have tried to do so. Instead, it’s taking inspiration from the source material’s main theme and blazing its own violent trail. The fact that Skarsgård’s Eric looks nothing like Lee’s should be praised rather than reviled, because it means the filmmakers understand when to leave well enough alone. After all, if movies are being remade to look and feel identical to their predecessors, what’s the point then?Of course, this could end up being a dumpster fire film in the end, but just because Skarsgård’s Eric looks like Machine Gun Kelly in Crow makeup shouldn’t be the reason to hate it automatically. Proyas’ The Crow didn’t achieve its success by recreating every single one of O’Barr’s pages, so why should the reboot be held to a different standard here?
