An exclusive first-look clip at The Crow that Lionsgate released in conjunction with San Diego Comic-Con 2024 has the title character taking a shot at bloody revenge, and settling for just the “bloody” part. The movie, a new adaptation of James O’Barr’s 1989 comic book series of the same name, stars Bill Skarsgård (of It and It: Chapter Two fame) and British performer FKA twigs as Eric and Shelly, young lovers who are “brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them.” Eric then returns from the dead to seek vengeance and try to save Shelly’s soul.
The initial trailer for The Crow, released several months ago, emphasizes that the undead version of Eric has “the powers of a god,” granted to him so he can correct the injustice of these two murders. But while the SDCC clip throws him into violent combat with some of the men he blames for the killings, he doesn’t come out of it well. It isn’t a comedic clip — nothing about this sequence suggests we’re meant to find it funny when his attempt at gunning down his enemies falls apart — but the tone certainly is remarkably different from the trailer’s attempt to revise 1980s goth chic with a 2020s horror-thriller aesthetic.
O’Barr’s limited series The Crow was previously adapted as a 1994 movie, which became infamous for the on-set death of its star, Brandon Lee, in a mishap involving a prop gun. That film was a box-office success that achieved low-key cult status, which has set the stakes for this modern adaptation particularly high — meaning that comics fans are likely to be scrutinizing clips like this very closely, waiting to see what kind of tone director Rupert Sanders will take with it. Sanders’ reputation isn’t the greatest in fandom; his last feature was the infamous 2017 Ghost in the Shell live-action remake, which stirred up a great deal of controversy over its casting of Scarlett Johansson in the lead role.
Here’s the SDCC exclusive version of the poster for 2024’s The Crow. The movie will debut in theaters on August 23.
You can find all Polygon’s coverage of SDCC 2024 news, trailers, and more here.
Image: Lionsgate
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