Poseidon Save Us, The Asylum Is Churning up a Sharknado Prequel

Just when we’re really, really sure that we’re off the hook, they reel us back in. The Asylum, low-budget mockbuster movie specialists (there’s actually a documentary about the studio called Mockbuster coming out next year), seemingly can’t resist the sweet, moneyed call of their most famous franchise for all that long: Sharknado is returning. In prequel form, no less. The film will reportedly be titled Sharknado Origins, with original director Anthony C. Ferrante (who helmed all six previous films) returning. Casting is to be “announced soon,” probably just as soon as The Asylum gets around to actually doing it, with a summer 2026 release in mind. Traditionally, the series always tended to release around the July 4 window, so we’d tell you to keep your eyes peeled for any fins breaking the water around that time.

It’s been more than seven years now since the supposedly final entry in the mainline Sharknado series, The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time. We reviewed that film, as we reviewed every single entry in the series, which became increasingly painful and focused on self-referentiality as it went. The series was noted for its incessant deployment of B- and C-list celebrity cameos, but also hewed tightly to its original core three characters: Fin (Ian Ziering), April (Tara Reid, typically half asleep) and Nova (Cassie Scerbo, who we interviewed about the long-running role in 2017). Sharknado Origins will reportedly involve a teenage Fin, finally letting Ziering off the hook, as he first meets the love of his life, April. And also … there’s presumably a Sharknado that occurs. Potentially multiple Sharknados.

Does this fly in the face of series continuity, given that in the original Sharknado, Fin and April don’t mention having ever battled aerial sharks before? Absolutely, yes. But given that the series has ALSO dabbled in everything from outer space shark attacks to time travel, then surely a little inconsistency is to be expected. Perhaps Fin and April will have their memories wiped of this particular adventure at the end of it, blissfully unaware that they’ll encounter the “first” Sharknado in the year of 2013. And for those who somehow already have nostalgia for the 2013 original entry and its sequels, it seems like a certainty that Sharknado Origins will probably find a way to work in the likes of Ziering and Reid for at least a cameo. For an entire series built on cameos, it’s literally the least they can do.

One wonders how The Asylum will plan to distribute and exhibit Sharknado Origins–if they’re hoping that a groundswell of hype and nostalgia will somehow make it a play for theaters, or whether they’ll team with their old partners in SyFy to debut the film, which memorably caused a viral moment when it first made landfall in 2013. One thing is certain: If the film makes money, expect the shark pipeline to keep on flowing. We leave you with the classic trailer for the original Sharknado below.

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