Ahead of the final three episodes of Revival first season on SYFY, PopWire spoke with series stars Melanie Scrofano (Dana Cypress) and Romy Weltman (Martha “Em” Cypress) at San Diego Comic Con 2025. The two talented actresses offered their thoughts on the themes of the series, creating their onscreen sisterly bond and much more.
Scrofano began by addressing the tried and true genres that Revival is remixing, namely the idea that it is not a zombie show. “I think in the history of storytellers, we get stuck sometimes on what has worked in the past, and sometimes that’s great. We can spend time in the stories that we know and explore them and sometimes we want to break out and try something different and I think this show does that really beautifully.” “The biggest thing for me is that Revivers don’t look like zombies in the traditional way,” said Weltman, adding that “It makes it a different conversation about why are they different.”
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Weltman also discussed Em’s big massacre of her captors in episode 6, “Well, first, I want to give a major shout out to Max White, our stunt coordinator as well as Chanelle Hunter, who did double me for most of that. I loved it! I’ve never been in these positions of getting beat up and fighting people. We all have this anger built up and sometimes we feel we want to break something. Maybe not our own bones, but it’s fair! Reading that on paper and seeing her weakness become her superpower was awesome.”
“The final scene with CM Punk… he really let me do all that and let loose. He said, ‘You can’t hurt me and I’m really good at my job so I won’t hurt you. So do you trust me and can we do this together?’ He and Chanelle both taught me I can do so much more than I thought I was capable of even though I’m 5’1 and petite.”
Speaking of Em’s weaknesses, Scrofano and Weltman dived into the Em’s affliction of Osteogenesis Imperfecta- a real world disease that causes your bones to break more easily- and how the show handled that storyline. “We don’t want to downplay this, cause that’s huge,” Scrofano said. “If you just have a bit of an issue there’s nothing to overcome. To really make sure that that’s present in the story even though that’s not my character.” “It affects the whole family,” Weltman added.
In addressing the complex relationship between Dana and her father, Scrofano said. “I think a lot of us can relate to the father-daughter aspect. Especially in today’s world where we all disagree so much, it can be really hard to find common ground with loved ones. I just watched episode 7 last night and it was hard to watch. I really felt the pain of two people who are like, I’m trying to love you but you’ve got to help me. In this crazy world of Revivers, that is such a human thing that we all struggle with.”
“This is a story of grief,” Weltman added. “Nobody grieves the same way. One person really wants to talk and another wants to push it down and bury it. Truly, Em is a dream character because I got to explore so much. I just think to get to tell a story that’s human and shows growth is such a win. If you think Em’s going through it now, just you wait!”
Revival airs Thursdays at 10/9c on SYFY and stream the following week on Peacock.
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