Whatever you do, don’t call the resurrected corpses in SYFY‘s Revival “zombies.” Like ever. It’s a little more complicated than that, as the cast and creators explain in a new featurette (watch below) ahead of the show’s hotly-anticipated June 12 premiere.
The erstwhile dead people in this reality are known as “Revivers,” and aside from the fact that they were — ya know, deceased — act and speak exactly like they did before kicking the bucket, though some do come back with “super-strength.” If a Reviver died with a certain physical injury, that wound remains the same, but any bodily harm inflicted after the fact heals instantly.
“Nothing to them feels off, except for, ‘I had a heart attack,’ or ‘I fell asleep and woke up,’ or ‘I was murdered,'” says Aaron B. Koontz, who serves as co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer with Luke Boyce.
Recurring guest star Phil Brooks, aka WWE wrestler CM Punk, adds that Tim Seely, writer of the Image Comic upon which the show is based, “would probably kick my ass for even using the ‘zombie’ word.”
Revival cast & creators explain why new SYFY series isn’t a zombie story
The central mystery falls on the shoulders of small-town cop and single mother Dana Cypress (Wynonna Earp‘s Melanie Scrofano), who has skin in the undead game when her own sister, Martha “Em” Cypress (Murdoch Mysteries‘ Romy Weltman), rises from the grave. Mad Men’s David James Elliott and Mrs. Davis‘s Andy McQueen round out the main cast as Sheriff Wayne Cypress (father to Dana and Martha) and Ibrahim Ramin (a CDC scientist dispatched to study the Reviver phenomenon), respectively.
In addition to Brooks, the roster of recurring guest stars also includes Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead), Gia Sandhu (A Simple Favor), Katherine 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) are recurring guest stars.
Lance Samuels, Daniel Iron, Samantha Levine, Neil Tabatznik, Daniel March, Melanie Scrofano, Greg Hemmings, Stephen Foster, and Amanda Row serve as executive producers with Koontz and Boyce.
How to watch Revival
Based on the comic book series of the same name by Tim Seely and Mike Norton, Revival premieres on SYFY premiere Thursday, June 12 at 10:00 p.m. ET. Episodes are available to stream exclusively on Peacock a week after they air.
