First released by Image Comics in 2012, the horror series Revival quickly became a hit for creators Tim Seely and Mike Norton, nominated for three Harvey Awards in 2013. While it unfortunately lost out to the juggernaut that was Saga that year, the comics nevertheless became beloved by many who have long been wanting to see a live-action adaptation. Wait no longer, because production on Revival has begun, and its main cast has just been announced.
Per Variety, Revival will star Melanie Scrofano (Wynonna Earp), Romy Weltman (Backstage), David James Elliott (JAG) and Andy McQueen (Outer Banks), all of whom will lead the original series for the SyFy network, which was created by showrunners Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce. Cameras are now rolling in New Brunswick, Canada, with eyeballs firmly fixed on a 2025 release.
Pitched early on by Seely and Norton as “Fargo meets The Walking Dead,” Revival focuses on the inhabitants of a rural town in Wisconsin whose dead miraculously return to life, and the effects it has on the populace. You’ll find no shambling zombies here, though, as the series separates itself from the sub-genre straight away by putting its own spin on a tired trope. Check out the official description below.
“On one miraculous day in rural Wisconsin, the recently deceased suddenly rise from their graves. But this is no zombie story, as the ‘revived’ appear and act just like they once were. When local officer and single mother Dana Cypress is unexpectedly thrown into the center of a brutal murder mystery of her own, she’s left to make sense of the chaos amidst a town gripped by fear and confusion where everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect.”
Revival Has a Difficult Task Ahead
In a world with shows like Manifest, The Returned, and Resurrection – all of which deal with similar subject matter – Revival will have to work hard to not be just another “back from the dead” series that gets bogged down in its thematic elements. Thankfully, the source material, which spans 47 issues, is flush with three-dimensional characters, such as Dana Cypress (Scrofano), her revived sister Martha (Weltman), Sheriff father Wayne (Elliott), and CDC scientist Ibrahim Ramin (McQueen), all of whom play integral roles in the main story.
That being said, like the aforementioned shows, Revival deals heavily with moral ambiguity, religion, and social issues such as discrimination and equality. Koontz and Boyce will have the arduous task of walking that fine line between character and theme where one often overtakes the other, thus imbalancing the scales and delivering a show that has a hard time figuring out what it wants to be. One only has to look to The Returned and Resurrection to see that, as the pair were canceled after one and two seasons respectively. Manifest had a longer shelf life, lasting three seasons on ABC, and a fourth on Netflix.
All that is to say that the pieces of a fantastic adaptation are right there at everyone’s fingertips, now they just have to put the puzzle together. With the production in full swing, here’s hoping everyone involved can deliver a series that is faithful to its source material, while at the same time separating itself from those that came before it. We’ll have more news on Revival, and how that puzzle looks, as things move closer to completion.
