Several images and a (very) brief snippet of footage have now emerged showing what Aquaman star Jason Momoa would have looked like as the avenging angel, The Crow. Taken from test footage from filmmaker Corin Hardy's attempted reboot, the gloomy images and footage have Momoa in the iconic face paint as he strikes some typically Crow-like poses...and looks strangely like Joaquin Phoenix's Joker...

This behind-the-scenes look at the project certainly demonstrates how well-suited Jason Momoa would have been for the role, with the actor displaying his distinctive physicality alongside the ethereal aura expected of The Crow. No doubt there will now be many calling for the reboot to be picked up again, with fans longing to see the actor exact his revenge as the gothic antihero.

Created by James O'Barr, The Crow revolves around a young man named Eric, who is forced to watch his fiancée, Shelly, murdered by a gang of street thugs after their car breaks down. Eric is then shot in the head, later dying in hospital. He is soon resurrected by a crow and seeks vengeance on the murderers, methodically stalking and killing them while dealing with the loss of Shelly. The story has been adapted into live-action before, back in 1994, with Brandon Lee playing the title role and directed by Alex Proyas. This iteration was released to positive reviews but sadly became infamous for the on-set death of Lee, who was fatally wounded during filming. The Crow has since spawned several, much lesser sequels, including The Crow: City of Angels in 1996, The Crow: Salvation in 2000, and finally The Crow: Wicked Prayer in 2005.

For what it’s worth, Corin Hardy has not completely given up hope of bringing his version of The Crow to screens. The director had been working on developing of a new entry in The Crow franchise for years, and while it has now been shelved, Hardy did recently state that it could still happen...someday.

"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 ... I suppose I'm not really wanting to show them because I still believe there will be a Crow sometime, but we'll see,” he said. “I do think both James O'Barr's original Crow graphic novel and the subsequent other iterations of that character in the comic books, there's no reason not to do a lot more with that character, the concept of The Crow, the mythology of The Crow, and the tone and what that represents is still unique within the world we're in at the moment."

Jason Momoa meanwhile is currently busy with a very different kind of comic book hero, reprising the role of Aquaman in the upcoming DC sequel, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Directed by James Wan from a screenplay written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, and starring Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II alongside Momoa, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is scheduled to be released on December 16, 2022. This backstage look at The Crow comes to us from @WeBuildMechs and @itsRyanUnicomb.