Every Actor Who Almost Played The Crow Before Bill Skarsgard Got Stuck With It

The comic book "The Crow," created by James O'Barr in 1989, should be considered a seminal work in the then-growing Goth movement. The comics were about a man named Eric who was engaged to a woman named Shelly. One evening, Eric and Shelly are savagely beaten and assaulted. Eric is shot in the head but remains alive long enough to witness Shelly's horrible murder. 

His story doesn't end there. The titular Crow appears over Eric's body and magically resurrects him, sending him on a quest for blood revenge. The unspeaking crow seems to want Eric to kill the punks that murdered Shelly, but also seemingly chastises him for brooding and remaining hung up on Shelly's death. Be angry, brood, but do not brood, and do not be angry. It's super-Goth. The comic was popular enough to warrant a celebrated film adaptation in 1994 starring Brandon Lee and directed by Alex Proyas. The film was ultra-stylized, coated with black leather and angst. "The Crow" is one of the most 1990s films of the 1990s. It also became legendary when Lee was infamously killed on set by a misfiring prop gun. 

In 2024, director Rupert Sanders has overseen a remake of "The Crow" with Bill Skarsgård in the lead role. Its trailer was released online today, and the film will open on June 7, 2024. 

The path to the 2024 remake has been long and circuitous. Indeed, it has been trapped in development hell since at least 2008, when it was announced that Stephen Norrington, the director of "Blade," would be tackling it. Nick Cave (!) was said to be writing the script and, by 2010, it was announced that Mark Wahlberg would be playing Eric. 

That was only the first unmade "Crow" remake.

The 2024 "Crow" remake is actually the fifth film to be based on O'Barr's comic. It comes after "The Crow: City of Angels" (1996), which was a direct sequel to the first, and the soft reboots "The Crow: Salvation" (2000), and "The Crow: Wicked Prayer" (2005). There was also a one-season TV series called "The Crow: Stairway to Heaven" which ran from 1998 to 1999, as well as eight "Crow" novels and a pile of comic books that came out from 1996 to 1999. 

Throughout the glut of "Crow" media, additional remakes and sequels have also been floated, only to fall apart. After "City of Angels" was released, Rob Zombie was approached about making a follow-up (he performed a cover of "I'm Your Boogieman" for the "City of Angels" soundtrack). Zombie's version was to be called "The Crow 2037," and followed a young man who grew up in a dystopian future, unaware that he was resurrected by a Crow when he was a boy. As we know, that version fell through and no actor was cast in the lead role. Also unsuccessful was the proposed 2000 remake called "The Crow: Lazarus" which would have starred rapper DMX as the resurrected.

By 2011, Stephen Norrington's "Crow" film fell apart, and it began to mutate. In 2011, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo ("28 Weeks Later") was attached as the project's new director, and he reportedly was talking to Bradley Cooper as a potential lead actor. There were some legal issues over the film rights to "The Crow," and Cooper had to step away to work on other projects. Director F. Javier Gutiérrez stepped in, and casting rumors began in earnest. At the time, James McAvoy was said to have signed on, while Ryan Gosling and Channing Tatum were allegedly approached. 

And then, perhaps predictably, the project mutated again, this time into a film directed by Corin Hardy. The Hardy version, as reported in 2013, was initially going to star Tom Hiddleston as Eric, which would have made sense after the success of "The Avengers" the year prior. It was around this time too that rumors began to swirl about the potential casting of Alexander Skarsgård, Bill's brother, as Eric. In 2015, after Hiddleston dropped out, multiple other new names were floated for the role, including Jack Huston and Nicholas Hoult. At this point, it may be easier to list the actors who hadn't been approached about playing Eric.

That version of the film languished for a few years, and the role of Eric was eventually handed over to Luke Evans. Only a few months later, Evans exited the project. In 2016, Hardy did as well. 

It was a murder of "Crow" remakes. 

And Hollywood wasn't done milking this bird. Even though "The Crow" didn't have a director, it was announced that Jason Momoa had been cast as Eric. Then Hardy returned to the project. It's difficult to say if the 2016 project was going to be a stylized homage to the 1994 original, or a down-to-earth, gritty rendition as suggested by Stephen Norrington way back in 1997. Needless to say, it was all a mess. By 2018, the Momoa/Hardy version fell apart entirely as both stepped away. 

In 2022, it was announced — to collective eye rolls — that "The Crow" was still being planned. It seems that producer Edward R. Pressman stuck by his guns and now, 30 years after the original film, a remake will finally hit the big screen. 

Its actual quality remains to be seen.