Television can be a little bit of a wasteland over the summer when so many of the biggest series are on hiatus. Luckily, the past few summers have featured such an exciting TV event that hiatuses really don't hurt so much. Syfy's Sharknado franchise --that centers on, you guessed it, tornadoes filled with sharks -- has released an installment every year since the first premiered in 2013, and each has included cameos from celebrities large and small. Sharknado: The 4th Awakens will be no different, and the latest announcement of famous folks to show up in The 4th Awakens reveals that WWE star Seth Rollins will soon be part of this over-the-top universe.
Seth Rollins will play the part of AstroTech Lopez in Sharknado: The 4th Awakens, according to Deadline. No further details are yet available about what his role as Lopez will entail, but I'm guessing the poor guy will find himself wrestling a shark in a space-based setting before being chomped to bloody bits. Celebrities tend to die in Sharknado movies, but at least Rollins has the skills and muscles to believably take a few sharks down with him before he succumbs to the latest freak wind incident. A battle between a shark and an AstroTech worker built like Seth Rollins has the potential to be seriously epic.
Of course, AstroTech Lopez might not be prepared enough for a sharknado to really make a solid last stand. The 4th Awakens will pick up five years after the shark-filled mess that destroyed much of the East Coast in Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! There have been no deadly weather disasters for our lowly hero Fin since that coast-hopping sequel, but the sharknados will be back once more to throw all manner of sea creature at him and his family and his potential acquaintance AstroTech Lopez.
Luckily for the East Coast, it sounds like the sharknados will be popping up closer to the West Coast this time around. Given that Wayne Newton and the Chippendales dancers are also showing up for cameos, we can expect that Las Vegas to be the next place hit with one. It'll have to be an epic tornado to have blown sharks all the way from the ocean to Nevada, but stranger things have happened in this universe. (See: Tara Reid giving birth inside of a shark.) Hey, maybe they're wrestling fans and are pissed that Rollins won and then immediately lost the belt at the last WWE pay-per-view.
Seth Rollins, Wayne Newton, and the Chippendales hunks are only a handful of the celebrities set to cameo. Gilbert Gottfried, Steve Guttenberg, and Paul Schaffer are among the most notable names set to show up and probably die in The 4th Awakens along with Gary Busey and Cheryl Tiegs. Ian Ziering will be back as Fin, and Tara Reid's April has evidently survived her cliffhanger from the end of Oh Hell No! David Hasselhoff and Ryan Newman will reprise their roles from the previous film.
This will be the former WWE Heavyweight Champion's first notable role on the small screen in a completely fictional setting. Rollins, whose real name is Colby Lopez, is also set to appear in the feature Temple, written by The Guest scribe Simon Barrett. He was also involved in quite the surreal rivalry with then-Daily Show host Jon Stewart, appearing on the nightly news show a couple of times for a "story" that culminated in a [silly Summer Slam incident][1] that had Stewart turning face on Jon Cena. That kind of narrative is about what we expect from this shark-quel.
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens will premiere on Syfy on July 31. If it's anything like the previous movies, it should be a big hit on social media that will have viewers going "WTF?!" for days. Check out our breakdown of the biggest "WTF?!" moments from Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! for a refresher before The 4th Awakens hits the airwaves.
[1]: http://This will be the former WWE Heavyweight Champion's first notable role on the small screen in a completely fictional setting. Rollins, whose real name is Colby Lopez, is also set to appear in the feature Temple, written by The Guest scribe Simon Barrett. He was also involved in quite the surreal rivalry with then-Daily Show host Jon Stewart.
