Showrunners Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce on Bringing Comic Horror Series REVIVAL to Life
- creepykingdom
- Jun 16
- 5 min read
By Shannon McGrew
Based on the bestselling Image comic series, REVIVAL follows a rural Wisconsin town where the recently deceased suddenly rise from their graves 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.
For the release of SYFY’s REVIVAL, Creepy Kingdom’s Shannon McGrew spoke with Showrunners and Executive Producers Aaron B. Koontz (Scare Package) and Luke Boyce (Revealer). During their chat, they discussed everything from adapting the cult-favorite comic to balancing horror and humor, as well as building out the show's themes of fear and othering.
Thank you both so much for chatting with me today, having never heard of the comic before I came into this series blind. That said, how did you guys first hear about the comic, and what was it about it that made you want to create a series?
Luke Boyce: I actually met [“Revival” co-creator] Tim Steeley at a convention back in 2016 and started talking to him about collaborating on something together. He was like, 'You know what," Revival" is available, and I freaked out because I was a huge fan of the comics.' I'd actually wanted to adapt it for a while, so we discussed it, and he was interested in doing something on a smaller scale. Since I’d done a lot of indie work, we started talking about adapting it.
Aaron had produced my feature, Revealer, and we had formed an instant friendship and connection. I sent Aaron a copy of “Revival” and told him he should check it out. He fell in love with it, and we started talking creatively about it, and immediately, I knew that he got it.
What I love about REVIVAL is its small-town weirdness. I grew up in a small town. Aaron grew up in a small town, so we understood that vibe, that world, and the noir aspect of it, which I have always loved and felt drawn to exploring in that vein and color space.
Aaron B. Koontz: When I read the first issue, I was like, this is a pilot. I’m a person who loves having a challenge put in front of me, and although I've never made a TV show, I was going to try. This is a cool comic and a really cool idea. Not only do I want to try to get it made, but I want to make this. I was so attached to the material. It mattered so much to me because this was not just a zombie story, nor was it just a murder mystery; it was a family story. A small-town story about a murder mystery where the person is still alive, trying to solve their murder. Luke and I joined forces, and I sold the hell out of this thing. It took a number of years of pushing this boulder up the hill, but here we are!
Similar to the work you’ve both done before, REVIVAL walks a fine line between humor and horror. Was that something already baked into the comic? What was the biggest challenge in executing that?
Aaron Koontz: There was a lot in the comic. It’s such a fantastic piece of source material. Luke and I had what we called our pre-writers’ room, which is just Luke and me on Zoom for 10 hours a day [Laughs] before we brought in our wonderful writer’s room with experienced TV writers to help us shape this. It was about finding touchstones of the comic, and these set pieces were basically what we were going to spend our money on. Then it was like, how do we take what’s happening in the comic in between the panels and infuse it with weirdness? I love to play with tone. Things can be melodramatic, then funny, and then scary.
What’s so great is sometimes, to some effect in some of my features, maybe I try to push too much too quickly in a thing, but here you could just spread it out, and I get to earn it. I get to set up something, a setup and a payoff, and having the freedom of 10 hours, I want to create a scene that is both funny and scary. When they butt up against each other in a feature, it’s like, 'Ugh,' but here you can craft it, carve it, and move it. I’ve never been more creatively fulfilled in my life. This is such an amazing experience, and Luke, as a partner, has just been so good.
The current social and political movements of today seem very embedded within the series. Is that something that is derived from the comic? Can you discuss the importance of conveying that to the viewers?
Luke Boyce: We talked about it a lot. We talked about what the things were that we’re saying here? What are the themes that we’re saying here? We live in a society where it’s easy to judge other people, right? We wanted to make a show about othering, essentially. How suddenly someone who feels familiar and whom you know can suddenly become that, and how do you react? How do we push against that? That was a big, big theme that we really wanted to explore.
Aaron B. Koontz: Hate begets hate, it’s a learned thing, and someone’s taught this. In the show, Wayne’s character wants to lock up Revivers. He represents that worldview. You’ve got Blaine’s character, who thinks they’re evil. It stems from fear, from people who are fearful of losing what they think is so important to them and their identity, and are willing to push others away rather than try to embrace them.
You have people who are loved ones or neighbors, and others turning against them, saying, 'You’re not my neighbor now,' and calling in to report their neighbor. That kind of bullshit that happens and where people don’t feel safe in their own homes is so heartbreaking. There were elements of this in the comic, and we were not going to hold back. This is vital. Without being preachy, it’s also asking you to question yourself and why you think a person is bad. Is it because they were taught that they are bad? If there was a Reviver that did a bad thing, does that mean all Revivers are this way? We just want to be black and white and paint in broad strokes. The show allows you to discuss it, and that’s very important to us.
The first episode of REVIVAL premiered on June 12 and is now available on SYFY and Peacock, with new episodes released weekly.
