The summer of 2016 is going to be filled with franchise sequels and continuations on the big screen, but one of the biggest movie events will be taking place on the small screen. The fourth installment in the Sharknado franchise – yes, the franchise based on tornadoes full of sharks – is set to be released in July. The fun began early when Syfy announced that the full title would be Sharknado: The 4th Awakens. Prepare yourself for your day to get way more awesome, and check out the poster for The 4th Awakens!
Who needs a lightsaber when you have a chainsaw? Ian Ziering channels his inner Mark Hamill as the centerpiece in the Star Wars-esque poster for The 4th Awakens, and it could not be more perfect. Hopefully, the made-for-TV movie won’t take the Star Wars parallels too far and end on the reveal that Ian Ziering’s Fin is secretly related to Tara Reid’s April. We’d really have to suspend our belief if that were the case, and we should not have to suspend our belief in a movie about tornadoes full of sharks. I mean, tornadoes are real and sharks are real. What could be more real than a combination of the two?
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens is a sequel to last summer’s Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! In-universe, however, the fourth installment will take place five years after the end of the third. The planet’s reprieve from sharknado storms will come to an end when a whole new batch of sharks are swept up into the air to crash down in some unexpected places. We may see more tiger sharks and bull sharks than TIE fighters and X-Wings, but we can’t necessarily rule out any dogfights between Fin and those toothy fish.
The 4th Awakens will be keeping up with the grand Sharknado tradition and finding ways to incorporate a bunch of appearances from celebrities large and small. To name a few, David Faustino of Married with Children will show up as a Las Vegas gambler, Lori Greiner will take a break from Shark Tank for the role of a home shopping guru, and Baywatch stars Gena Lee Nolin and Alexandra Paul will shed their bathing suits to play rocket scientists. Other celebrities will appear as themselves, ranging from Vince Neil of Motley Crue and Wayne Newton to Todd, Savannah, and Grayson Chrisley from Chrisley Knows Best. It should be fun to see just how The 4th Awakens finds new ways to kill off some of these famous faces.
In addition to Ian Ziering returning as Fin, Tara Reid will show up as April to reveal to audiences the outcome of the #AprilDies/#AprilLives social media campaign. David Hasselhoff and Ryan Newman will reprise their roles as Gil and Claudia Shepard as well.
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens will premiere on July 31 at 8 p.m. ET on Syfy. To see what TV you’ll be able to watch to pass the time while you wait, check out our schedule of summer TV premiere dates, and check out the five biggest “WTF!” moments from the franchise.
