CM Punk will no doubt go down as one of the most exciting and scrappy wrestling superstars of the modern era, and is in the midst of a stellar run punctuated in part by his huge match with Drew McIntyre at Bad Blood on the way to potentially fighting for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania (or another upcoming WWE event). So it’s perhaps surprising that he’s now also making headlines related to his acting career.
He’s shown off his acting skills with recurring roles on shows like Heels and Mayans M.C., and has a penchant for signing on for films of the horror variety. Punk is tapping into those genre interests for a new TV project that sounds way more aligned with The Undertaker, but is still exciting all the same.
The athlete, whose real name is Phil Brooks, is set for a recurring role in Syfy’s horror series Revival, which will be the first live-action adaptation of the acclaimed comic book of the same name created by writer Tim Seeley and artist Mike Norton for Image Comics. He’ll be joining a cast that already includes Wynonna Earp’s Melanie Scrofano, Tulsa King’s Glenn Gould, JAG’s David James Elliott, Outer Banks’ Andy McQueen, and The Walking Dead’s Steven Ogg, among others.
Revival is set in rural Wisconsin in a world that changes forever when those who recently passed away return to the land of the living on a day that comes to be known as Revival Day. Rather than stereotypical zombies, these undead are much like their former selves in terms of behavior. The local sheriff (Scrofano) gets embroiled in a very personal murder mystery all while the community is turned upside down with confusion and curiosity.
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According to Variety, details about CM Punk’s character are currently being kept below six feet of dirt, so it’s not clear yet who he’ll be playing. Considering the comic series ran for 47 issues and introduced a wide variety of townsfolk and outsiders who investigate the revivals, among others, it’s hard to even guess how the wrestler would be best utilized within this dark world.
The cable production is currently filming in New Brunswick, Canada, with the hopes that it’ll debut on Syfy at some point on the 2025 TV schedule. (It obviously won’t be a one-to-one substitute for Chucky, which was canceled this year, but it’s something.) Given the ongoing production, it’ll be interesting to see if and how CM Punk’s involvement with the show affects his time in the ring.
One assumes he wouldn’t let a recurring TV role get in the way of his potential WrestleMania bout with Drew McIntyre. So even if there are some weeks during the holiday season where he might not be around as much, it ideally won’t be a sign of anything but his other career duties calling.
And you know, if something happens and CM Punk happens to be too busy to make his Revival role work, there would be no better reason for The Undertaker to come out of retirement than to serve as a fictional character within a comic book TV show. Wait, maybe that's a terrible reason.
