Before Bill Skarsgård had his visage smudged with black and white face paint, Brandon Lee dawned the image of James O’Barr’s resurrected superhero, Eric Draven. “The Crow” was released back in 1994, to this day the movie still has a cult following for its use of gothic imagery and parallels drawn with the tragedy behind the scenes and what is in front of it.

To talk about the movie, there must be a discussion around what led to it first and that was James O’Barr’s comic “The Crow.” Back in 1981, O’Barr was grieving the death of his fiancé due to the carelessness of a drunk driver when he was only 18-years-old.

The pain was too much to handle and like many of the all time greats, he transformed his sorrow into art. The comic that he was conjuring up was meant for him to receive closure and a way for him to cope with the death.

He created a comic in which a young man named Eric and his fiancée, Shelly, are stranded on the side of the road after their car breaks down. They are then attacked by a gang of criminals where Eric is shot and paralyzed, leaving him no choice but to watch the criminals brutally torture  Shelly, then later be shot in the head. Both are taken to the hospital, Shelly is labeled “Dead on Arrival,” where Eric dies some time later. He is then resurrected by a mythical crow in order to seek revenge on the criminals who killed him and Shelly. 

The series was published by Caliber Comics in 1989 and once it hit the comic stands, it outsold its print run of 10,000 copies. By now, “The Crow” sold approximately 750,000 copies around the world and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. 

“The Crow” quickly became a success in the underground comic world, and was later adapted into a movie under the same title with a few changes to the story. 

For example, the attack takes place in Eric and Shelly’s apartment instead of on the side of the road, like in the comic. Eric is thrown through a window, the fall killing him. Shelly gets attacked pretty much the same way, however, there is no shot to the head. Unlike the comic, she is alive when being taken to the hospital, but later dies.

Now, who should be casted as the lead role, Eric Draven? Well, the producers initially thought that the role should have gone to a punk-rock musician. Obviously, that would fit with the gothic aesthetic that the movie was shooting for. 

However, O’Barr had thought differently. Instead of trying to cast someone a bit unknown as Eric Draven, O’Barr thought of many well-established names to play the hero. Christian Slater, Johnny Depp and River Phoenix (another movie star who many believed died a tragic, untimely death in Hollywood) were some names that he thought of. 

The man who would become the Eric Draven that people know about today was Brandon Lee, the son of legendary martial artist Bruce Lee. Though, that is not what he wanted to be known for in the slightest. Brandon was once approached to play his father in “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story,” but he ended up turning it down because he did not want to be unfavorably compared to him during his career.

Also, there was this fear that the audience may have believed that he played his father the wrong way, if possible. A career ender, in his opinion. The role later went to the talented Jason Scott Lee and whilst Brandon did work on the sidelines with the creators behind the film, he did not live long enough to see it be released. The film was later dedicated to him and his father.

Brandon Lee starred in a few other films before “The Crow,” including “Legacy of Rage” (1986), “Laser Mission” (1989), “Showdown in Little Tokyo” (1991) and ”Rapid Fire” (1992). Lee had the chance to show off his acting chops and martial art skills that left many wanting more.

He was offered numerous opportunities to be cast in action movies, but the idea of being typecast was too much for him and this made him decline them. “The Crow” was his chance to be different in Hollywood and would allow for him to be that stepping stone out of his father’s shadow. Going from martial arts to goth is a bit of a drastic change.

One of the things that no one can take away from “The Crow” is how dedicated Lee was to making this movie work. He had lost some weight to be Eric Draven and even learned how to play the guitar. He would deliberately go outside when the weather was no more than five degrees while it was raining without any shoes on.

Interview after interview, anyone could see how much this role meant to Lee. This was supposed to be his breakout role in Hollywood, a chance to show everyone that he was more than just his last name. He knew it in his heart and he was right, unfortunately, he would never get to see it happen.

On March 30th, the filming of “The Crow” was coming to a stop. Lee was in the middle of filming a scene where his character, Eric Draven, is murdered by some criminals who have also murdered his love, Shelly played by Sofia Shinas. One of the crooks, Michael Massee, fired blanks at Lee. 

However, the gunpowder in the blank cartridge caught on fire and as a result, a fragment of a bullet (most likely the part of a dummy shell that was left in the barrel from a previously recorded scene) was fired into Lee’s midsection. 

Many seem to believe that Lee was killed instantly, but that is not true. He went through around six hours of surgery before he was truly dead—he was only 28, not that far off from his father, who passed away at the age of 33. 

The actor only had three more filming days of “The Crow” before his death. He still had some important unfilmed scenes that were pivotal to the movie. Chad Stahelski, the director behind the “John Wick” movies, played as Lee’s stand-in for these scenes. 

“The Crow” was finished in his honor and on May 13th, 1994, the movie was released in the United States. It would not become a smash hit, however, that has never stopped a movie from being iconic.

The parallels between real life and the movie always stood out to fans of “The Crow.” The whole plot is about a man who was killed and given a second chance at life. However, the real world is not like this. Brandon Lee was killed and he never got another chance to see all the praise he received for his performance.

“If the people we love are stolen from us, the way to have them live on is to never stop loving them. Buildings burn, people die, but real love is forever.“ 

These were the last lines of the movie spoken by Rochelle Davis as Sarah Mohr. Obviously, this was meant for the character of Eric Draven, but no one could truly ignore the parallels to its real scenario in Brandon Lee. The fact that a movie about death and other gothic elements had a tragedy happened behind the scenes catapulted “The Crow” to the status everyone knows it as today. 

Even after “The Crow” was released in 1994, there were still sequels made in the series. “The Crow: City of Angels” (1996) had Ashe, a mechanic, take on the Crow moniker. Also “The Crow: Salvation” (2000) in which Alex Corvis is electrocuted in the false conviction of killing his girlfriend, Lauren, and brought back as the Crow. And lastly, “The Crow: Wicked Prayer” (2005) had a similar plot in which a person, this time Jimmy Cuervo, is resurrected into becoming the Crow.

To this day, people are still surprised that “The Crow” had any other movies made besides the one with Brandon Lee because, frankly, no one really cared for them. It is important to note that these characters were never meant to be an exact replica of Eric Draven, they had different names and everything. 

It was not until 2024 that there was a readaptation of “The Crow” that was more loyal to the comic book storyline than the 1994 movie. Bill Skarsgård would be set to play Eric Draven and FKA Twigs was casted as Shelly Webster. Due to the circumstances of Brandon Lee, this movie was already subjected to criticism before it even came out.

Many felt like with the death of Lee, it was disrespectful to remake “The Crow” after Lee had put his all into the movie and ultimately lost his life because of it. Usually people do not want remakes because there is nothing that can replicate the original, but this special case Bill Skarsgård and other writers/directors in a strange scenario.

Was it unnecessary? Incredibly so, since Hollywood is in its ‘remake everything’ phase, it is not a surprise that “The Crow” was not left off of the list. At the same time, it is also not surprising how many people felt that the remake was a bit disrespectful to the original.

And that is not to discredit Skarsgård as a phenomenal actor, his performances including Pennywise the Dancing Clown speak for his talent enough. But, the remake just was not a good place to show off those acting chops that everyone knows that he possesses. 

There is a thing such as creative liberties being taken, however, it is not a good choice to take everything that made Eric Draven as recognizable as he is today (such as his face paint and costume) and stripping it away. The only thing that stayed the same was his name and that is what caused the backlash.

There are many different variations of the Joker, even the most hated portrayal, Jared Leto in “Suicide Squad” (2016), had some aspects about his character that stayed true to the Joker character. Bill Skarsgård’s version had none, really. 

No matter how many sequels or remakes are made, no one can deny the influence that “The Crow” has had over the years. For example, the whole character of Sting, the wrestler, (Steve Borden) was directly inspired by Brandon Lee’s work as Eric Draven. That black and white face paint, the intensity and the spontaneous entrances from the raptors were because of “The Crow”.

Eric Draven resembled that of many alternative and goth kids with his garb and for that the character is widely recognized as a gothic icon of sorts. Before “The Matrix” made wearing trench coats popular in the media, the gloomy hero, Draven, walked through the streets of Detroit wearing similar garb.

The cinematography of the movie really shines through, the director, Alex Proyas made it a point to rarely film scenes in the daylight. This really made the dark, grunge feeling of the story shine through. The audience felt like Eric Draven could be lurking pretty much anywhere with how much shadow is layered into the scenery.

With this performance, Lee became one of the biggest ‘what-if’ in Hollywood alongside others like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger.  The movie speaks for itself, anyone who watches it can see an actor who put his everything into a role that ended up being his last. 

What was supposed to be a breakout role turned into an example of what not to do on set, and even then there are recent examples of negligence going on behind the scenes. Take the movie “Rust” (2024) as an example with the death of Halyna Hutchins by a discharged bullet from a gun Alec Baldwin was holding. 

To this day, there are still comparisons being made between other comic book movies and “The Crow,” a testament to Lee’s timeless performance. Many actors dream of having their legacy be set in stone by a breakout role, but unfortunately for Lee, it did not go to plan as it should have. 

There is a common agreement between admirers of his short career that if he were still here today, Hollywood would have been in the palm of his hand. No one could truly picture what Brandon Lee’s career would look like if he was still alive today. But, “The Crow” serves as a constant reminder of what he was capable of and more.