Outside of the swirling, shark-ridden storms that dominated the first two Sharknado movies, the franchise’s remaining attractions are its leading stars, Ian Ziering and Tara Reid. Their performances in SyFy’s biggest-ever movie series border on so-bad-they’re-good and have formed a large part of why fans went berserk watching them in peril. So, it should come as no surprise that the two have now signed on to reprise their roles in the third instalment, Sharknado 3.
Ziering and Reid’s resilient onscreen counterparts, Fin and April, won’t be the only returning players in the hugely-successful B-movie explosion. Back behind the camera for a third time is Anthony C. Ferrante, who will direct once again from a script by Thunder Levin. And by the sounds of it, it’s business as usual.
Whereas the first flick decimated Los Angeles, and the second upped sticks to wreak havoc in New York City, Sharknado 3 will relocate its chaos over the nation’s capital. Washington D.C. will come under attack from a third shark-infested storm, before the unrelenting terror makes its way down the East coast to Orlando.
The first Sharknado became a sleeper hit after it garnered a cult following back in 2013. The low-budget schlocker’s success came as a surprise, and prompted a follow-up in the shape of last year’s Sharknado 2: The Second One. Nearly tripling the ratings of the original, the sequel scored 3.9 million viewers, making it SyFy’s most-watched movie in the history of the network. Its premiere became as notable an event as the movie itself, with fans and critics alike taking to social media to live-post their opinions as the film unfolded. The franchise’s stronghold on the public suggests that when Sharknado 3 debuts on SyFy this July, we’ll be in for more of the same.