The late Brandon Lee’s iconic turn as Eric Draven in The Crow (1994) will never be matched, and it’s fair to say that the original film’s fans are steadfastly devoted to the version brought to screen by director Alex Proyas. In a statement via Lionsgate, remake director Rupert Sanders does not sidestep the gothy elephant lurking in the alley: “It was a culture-defining film that is beloved to this day and has inspired many other iterations both inside and outside the Crow Universe.”
A trailer for the 2024 remake for the movie has now arrived. We’ll have to wait and see how viewers fully respond, but the actual trailer doesn’t role out as divisively as expected. Also, the original film did have plentiful violence and gory scenes, but the updated version of Eric Draven feels amplified in displays of his invulnerability. With that said, Bill Skarsgård and FKA Twigs surely knew that fans of the original film (and the graphic novel by James O’Barr) would react strongly to this remake no matter what the results, which will no doubt be discussed at length upon its release.
For now, here’s the synopsis, which changes the reason why Shelley and Eric were targeted. It’s difficult to tell from the trailer whether this switch will be as unfaithful to the Shelley character as it could turn out to be:
Soulmates Eric Draven (Skarsgård) and Shelly Webster (FKA twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.
The Crow remake swoops into theaters on June 7, 2024.
