‘The Crow’ reboot lives again with Bill Skarsgård set to star as the new Eric Draven

After years stuck in development purgatory, The Crow looks to fly again — yes, really — and has signed a modern horror icon to take up the title role.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, IT star Bill Skarsgård has signed on to star as Eric Draven (aka The Crow), a man who is killed by street violence and returns to the world of the living on a mission of revenge. FKA Twigs (Honey Boy) has also been cast as Shelly Webster, Eric's fiancée whose death drives Eric back to the living. While the original film had Shelly as a minor character, THR is also reporting that this reimagining will have the role be a co-lead. 

The reboot will also now be directed by Rupert Sanders (Ghost in the Shell), who takes over following a laundry list of would-be directors in the wake of a decade of fits and false starts for the troubled project. 

On the starring front, Skarsgård joins a lengthy list of actors who have signed on to star in The Crow reboot, a club that has included everyone from Luke Evans to Jason Momoa across the various attempts to get the franchise back off the ground. They’re all looking to take up the mantle from original star Brandon Lee, who tragically died when he was shot while filming the original movie during an on-set accident. 

Hollywood has been trying to bring the franchise back for more than a decade, but this time it really does sound like The Crow might actually happen. The project is reportedly already in preproduction on the way to a June shooting start. The project will film in Munich and Prague, with a solid-but-modest budget of around $50 million. 

The 1994 original remains a cult classic in genre lore, though previous attempts to keep the franchise going have been less well-received. The 1996 sequel The Crow: City of Angels starred Vincent Perez in the title role. Then there was a short-lived TV adaptation starring Mark Dacascos. That was followed by 2000’s The Crow: Salvation with Eric Mabius as Draven, then 2005’s The Crow: Wicked Prayer starring Edward Furlong. Not surprisingly, none of those projects managed to attain the critical heights of the original, and the franchise has been largely dormant for the past 17 years.

If nothing else, Skarsgard seems to have the gravitas and look to channel The Crow for a new generation of fans. He brought absolute terror to life in the two IT films as Pennywise, and his work on Hulu’s Stephen King-inspired TV series Castle Rock was some positively haunting stuff.