IGN Live was able to exclusively reveal the first five minutes of SYFY’s upcoming adaptation of Revival, and we also had the chance to speak to the series’ co-creator and showrunner, Aaron B. Koontz, about why this show about the dead coming back to life in surprising way will be well worth a watch.
Revival is set to debut on SYFY on June 12 and is based on the Harvey Award-nominated comic from Tim Seeley and Mike Norton that ran for 47 issues from 2012-2017. In our exclusive clip you can watch below, we are introduced to this world on ‘Revival Day,’ which is the day the dead rise. However, these aren’t zombies; the undead are very much the same as they were when they were alive.
These few minutes are very much the same as the opening of the comic, and Koontz shared why that was such a great thing.
“It’s one of the first scenes in the comic, and we were like, this hooked us,” Koontz said. “I thought it was really cool and had no idea where this was going to go. And I will say, without giving things away, this scene is also more than just a scene. You’ll see, after watching later episodes, that these first few minutes were hiding so much more than you realized.”
One of the big moments from the clip is one of the undead being cremated at Randy’s Crematorium in Wausau, Wisconsin, and trying to break free and then running around on fire. That was all practical and not some CG wizardry.
“I wanted to be ambitious,” Koontz said. “I wanted to set people on fire and I didn’t want to do CG. We were also in such a small town where there weren’t a ton of extra ambulances and we felt really bad because so many medical personnel were there. I remember thinking, ‘I hope nothing bad happens in the town tonight because they’re all sitting on our set!'”
And of course, we got to spend some time with Randy himself, who is played by Graeme Barrett of Divorced Dads and Court of Chaos fame. Koontz actually found him on Instagram and thought he “fits the vibe of what we want juxtaposed against the serious business.”
“I think one of my favorite things in the script was like, okay, but these are not our main characters,” Koontz added. “So, how do you get them right to the main characters and what’s there? And I love that Randy saying it’s not my fault is also similar to the very first line you hear Wayne Cypress say. And you’re immediately in a fight with Wayne and Dana, and so you’re seeing and feeling the dynamic of the Cypress family, which is important because the Cypress family is the heart of this whole show.”
So, all in all, Revival isn’t meant to be a “super serious scary thing.” Instead it aims to have scary moments, melodramatic moments, and also a lot of fun moments. Koontz said it’s a mix between Mare of Easttown and Fargo, filled with weird, quirky characters, full on horror thriller elements, and the good parts of the zombie tropes with a twist that makes it unique.
Revival will premiere on SYFY on June 12 and will be available on Peacock the following week. The series stars Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna Earp), Romy Weltman (Backstage), David James Elliott (JAG), Andy McQueen (Mrs. Davis), Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead), Phil Brooks aka CM Punk (Mayans M.C.), Gia Sandhu (A Simple Favor), Katharine King So (The Recruit), Maia Jae (In the Dark), Nathan Dales (Letterkenny), Mark Little (Doomlands), Glen Gould (Tulsa King), Lara Jean Chorostecki (Nightmare Alley), and Conrad Coates (Fargo).
The series is based on the Harvey Award-nominated 2010s comic title of the same name from writer Tim Seeley and artist Mike Norton, which ran for 47 issues from 2012-2017 from Image Comics.
For more, check out our exclusive trailer reveal for Revival and everything else happening at IGN Live.
Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst, Instagram, and TikTok, and listen to his show, Talking Disney Magic.
