Steven Ogg: 'Revival' character is saving town from Devil's children

UPI

03-07-2025

Left to right, Romy Weltman, Melanie Scrofano and Steven Ogg in "Revival," airing Thursdays. Photo by Lavivier Productions/SYFY
NEW YORK, July 3 (UPI) -- Snowpiercer, Better Call Saul and The Walking Dead alum Steven Ogg says he wanted to be part of the supernatural drama Revival because it allowed him to play Blaine Abel, a man who finds purpose in a crisis.
"His father was a preacher, so, early in his life, he kind of rejected all of that," Ogg, 51, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
Instead of leading a church congregation, Blaine does odd jobs to pay the bills and hosts a radio show in his down time.
"On Revival Day, when the dead come back to life, literally, for him, everything becomes very myopic in that moment. This is my goal now. My goal is to save people from the Revivers, which he considers to be the Devil's children. So, his faith and everything he had as a youth, growing up, just floods back into him and it is almost like he's ironically becoming his dad," Ogg said.
"He believes he's doing the Lord's service," he added. "This becomes his calling."
Created by Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce, the comic book adaptation airs Thursdays on Syfy.
It follows the residents of a small Wisconsin town where the recently dead are coming back to life and wreaking havoc. It stars David James Elliott and Melanie Scrofano as the father-daughter, sheriff-deputy duo of Wayne and Dana Cypress.
Romy Weltman plays Dana's resurrected sister Em and Andy McQueen plays Ibrahim, a CDC scientist sent to figure out what is going on.
Despite its extraordinary circumstances, the show is both funny and scary, while maintaining emotional authenticity as it explores issues of grief, community, addiction and isolation.
"The tone is dark. It looks visually stunning. The characters are very interesting and reveal themselves consistently. It's consistently pulling back layers," Ogg said.
"What Melanie does with her sense of humor and the portrayal of the character, I think, is unique. I'm not a huge TV watcher, but I certainly think it's different than things I have seen or know of."
Ogg said he thinks viewers who lived through the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns or who have felt ostracized because they march to a different drummer may connect to the show's characters and themes.
"It's very interesting how people deal with differences," he added. "Are we going to come together? Are people going to meet in the middle? Or are we just completely divisive? I think it's going to be fun to continue to see how that's explored on the show."
Although Ogg has starred in some of the most famous graphic novel adaptations of the 21st century, he insists he is not a real-life connoisseur of the medium, other than loving Alan Moore's Jack the Ripper tale, From Hell.
"I think it's just this face, maybe," he laughed about why the universe seems to bring him so many jobs based on this specific type of visual, printed storytelling.
"When I'm not on a project, I'll read five or six novels in a week. I read copious amounts, but graphic novels, I've never been into," Ogg said.
"Give me a George Eliiot, 1,000-page novel, I can sink my teeth into that, but graphic novels with the pictures? Even as a kid, I never looked at comic books," he added. "I love art and art books. I can sit and go through an entire Taschen Egon Schiele book and go page by page, but the combination [of art and narrative]? I don't know, with graphic novels."