Look out, New York City! The forecast for 2014 is cloudy with a chance of sharknados.
On Wednesday (July 17) morning, Syfy officially announced that it was greenlighting a sequel to the social media phenomenon “Sharknado,” targeting the Big Apple as the next major urban center to be hit by flying sharks.
As an added gimmick, Syfy is asking Twitter users to choose the subtitle for the new “Sharknado,” telling them to tweet their favorite subtitles at @SyfyMovies.
This is an appropriate contest because Twitter users were essentially the only people watching “Sharknado” when it premiered last week. Although it became “the most social program” on TV on its premiere night, drawing 387,000 social mentions, it was watched by only 1.37 million viewers, or fewer than “Chupacabra vs. the Alamo.”
Still, there’s value in social engagement and Syfy was excited enough to immediately schedule an encore for this Thursday (July 18) night and to move forward on the sequel. Or is it a sequel?
“Every once in a while, there is a perfect storm — on television. The fans are clamoring for a sequel. Or perhaps it will be a prequel,” blurbs Syfy EVP Thomas Vitale. “What we can guarantee is that Sharknado 2 will be lots of fun. We”ll be announcing more details very soon. But we didn”t want our fans to worry they wouldn”t get their fill of more shark fin, I mean, fun next year.”
Other than to specify that The Asylum will return to produce “Sharknado 2,” Syfy didn’t specify which members of the creative team and cast would be returning.