Leaked Test Footage Shows Jason Momoa As Eric Draven In Cancelled The Crow Reboot
Thanks to a new set of leaks, we finally know how the DCEU’s swashbuckling Aquaman, Jason Momoa, would have looked like as a different kind of superhero had the previously planned The Crow reboot ever come to fruition.
Related: Jason Momoa Dons the Face of The Crow – Apologizes to Fans
Pre-production test shots of Momoa in The Crow’s signature make-up, presumably taken when The Nun director Corin Hardy was still set to try his best to get the bird flying again, have surfaced online.
As seen below, Momoa sure is a ringer for the late Brandon Lee, who portrayed the character in the original 1994 film.
jason mamoa Crow test shoot pic.twitter.com/oN9Qy5uCgS
— SaFfRoN ScOoT (@WeBuildMechs) November 25, 2021
Some test footage also leaked and, as you can tell, both Hardy and the studio, Relativity Media, were intent on closely replicating the gloomy Goth Metal aesthetic of the 1994 Alex Proyas-directed original.
https://twitter.com/itsRyanUnicomb/status/1464021254663331840?s=20
This test material has fans of the James O’Barr graphic novel and the Lee-Proyas movie divided, but many of them have admitted that, given how they like what they see with Momoa in the face paint, the reboot could have been interesting.
That said, however, a good number of people – including Proyas himself – think that Lee’s performance – which was, unfortunately, his last – should continue to stand on its own and not be touched.
“My point is that Brandon Lee made that movie what it is. He made that movie, he made that character,” said Proyas during a 2020 appearance on the It’s Hughezy, Hello! podcast. “That character was not taken from a comic book, that was Brandon. And Brandon Lee died making that movie, he paid the worst price anyone could ever pay making a movie and it’s his legacy. The guy would have been a huge star after that movie. He wasn’t able to ever do that.”
“So that’s what the movie is,” he continued. “It’s not just a movie that can be remade. It’s one man’s legacy. And it should be treated with that level of respect.”
With his casting in the potential The Crow reboot, Momoa was but the latest in a long line of actors – including Jack Huston and Bradley Cooper – who were to step into the part. Hardy boarded the project, which we now know beyond a doubt was a full-fledged remake revisiting the character of Eric Draven, in 2014.
Scheduling inevitably got in the way and led to both men stepping away from the project after devoting four years on its development. It was eventually canceled outright, but Hardy told Comicbook.com earlier this year that he still hopes to make it one day.
“It’s a story that I’m just in love with and wedded towards and I put three and a half, four years of life into and love and blood and sweat and tears, and I have a ton of materials, so I don’t know whether one day,” Hardy said. “I suppose I’m not really wanting to show them because I still believe there will be a Crow sometime, but we’ll see.”
Related: Jason Momoa Says Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom Has a Lot of Comedy
Proyas’ original The Crow did receive three sequels, each about a new character going through the same story of resurrection and revenge, though Each installment of the series varied in quality and had diminishing returns despite featuring well-known actors such as Eric Mabius, Edward Furlong, David Boreanaz, Dennis Hopper, Tara Reid, Kirsten Dunst, and Tito Ortiz.
The IP also received a TV spin-off, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, starring actor, martial artist, and cooking show MC Mark Dacascos as a PG-rated Eric Draven. However, the series was canceled after just one season, even though its ratings justified a second or a follow-up in the form of a TV movie.
If fate wants any attempt at a new The Crow to stay grounded, then maybe it’s best to let sleeping corpses lie and not peck at this particularly tombstone, lest something come back to put right the production team’s wrongs.
What do you make of Momoa’s appearance in the now-shelved The Crow reboot? Let us know your thoughts on social media or in the comments down below!
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