Fans of the American horror comic series Revival will recognize Blaine Abel as a snowmobile-riding, Limp Bizkit-loving tow truck exorcist. However, when it came time for Co-Creators and Co-Showrunners Aaron B. Koontz and Luke Boyce to adapt the story for television, the character underwent a significant transformation for the SYFY series.
One of the most critical elements in bringing the reimagined Blaine to life for the live-action adaptation of Revival was the casting process.
“Aaron wrote me a beautiful letter that I was given and it explained that he was a big fan and that it would be a dream to work with me,” actor Steven Ogg shares with PopWire in an exclusive interview. “It was just a really beautiful letter that brought me to tears because of the generosity with which he shared his vision for this show, the passion he had. So we hopped on a call and chatted for a couple hours and that’s how I then became involved. I loved his passion and his energy and I thought, this will be something different.”
In a prior conversation with PopWire, Revival Co-Showrunner Luke Boyce revealed that Blaine was a character the creative team “really wanted to have fun with.” With a foundation in demonology, the team sought to expand the character beyond his comic book origins.
“Let’s really move Blaine in a direction that is going to be topical to current day stuff,” Boyce explains. “And as we talked with Stephen Ogg, that character even evolved more, he gave a lot of input into what he felt. We had to rewrite a lot of his lines.”
This collaborative approach proved essential in shaping the on-screen version of Blaine. Ogg emphasized the importance of having a voice in the character’s development.
“[Aaron and Luke] were sort of presenting ideas or thoughts, and then I would contribute my own,” he says of working with the creators. “And any good collaboration is just that. You share your thing, I share mine. We meet, we form, bring it together, present it. I don’t think either of us had to really push someone in a different direction they wanted to go. I think we were all on the same page with [which way the character is going to go]. It was a very seamless collaboration, which was wonderful.”
Lavivier Productions/SYFY
One of the most noticeable updates in the series is that Blaine now hosts a religious radio show, an element that adds a new dimension to his character. The mere mention of this addition brought a smile to Ogg’s face. “It was fun to do kind of this radio show, ‘The Blaine Abel Hour,'” he says. “That was cool.”
“There’s a lot of history that we’ll talk about with Blaine later on in the season,” Boyce teases. “I don’t want to give away, but that radio show becomes somewhat important throughout this process as a voice in the town that people can cling to. And so that’s a storyline that’s going to evolve with Blaine.”
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In this week’s episode, titled “Triage“, viewers can expect to see even more of Ogg’s character. According to the actor, Blaine is only just beginning to make his presence known.
“Blaine gets to say some pretty cool things. And… Blaine also gets to do some pretty cool things,” Ogg says. “I think his presence gets larger in his ability to what he does. Like his stillness and his presence just grows. It literally feels like he keeps getting stronger and bigger as we go through. So I think that’s what one can expect is a bigger presence from Blaine.”
For those who haven’t yet tuned in, Ogg encourages audiences to give the series a try, highlighting its originality and visual impact.
“It looks really cool. It’s really visual, and visually cool,” Steven Ogg says. “They’ve really captured a tone and a uniqueness with really wonderful, unique characters that are portrayed by really wonderful actors and even the sense of humor, right? It’s unexpected what Melanie [Scrofano] brings to her character. And I think it’s just refreshing. It’s just something different. It has a lot of the similar genres as other things, but from everything I’ve seen, it’s unique.”
Revival airs Thursdays at 10/9c on SYFY, with episodes streaming a week later on Peacock.
