This should probably come as no surprise, given the Twitter whirlwind churned up by last week's Sharknado, but now at least we can say it's official: Syfy has announced that a sequel to the outrageous monster/disaster movie mashup is definitely going to happen.
Sharknado 2 is slated to air on the network sometime next year, and this time the shark-storm will be headed for New York City. The Asylum, the studio behind Sharknado and other monster epics like the Mega Shark films (including the upcoming Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark, which you can read about here), will produce again.
Tapping into the social media explosion surrounding last Thursday's premiere, Syfy is launching a Twitter contest allowing fans to choose the official subtitle for the sequel. Just tweet your suggested subtitle to @SyfyMovies with the hashtag #Sharknado, and the network will choose their favorite.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Sharknado pulled in strong but not record-breaking ratings during its premiere last Thursday, but it also launched more than 604,000 tweets that same day – that's even more than the infamous "Red Wedding" episode of Game of Thrones.
The Reporter also interviewed The Asylum's head of development Micho Rutare, who reportedly wants acclaimed screenwriter Damon Lindelof (World War Z) to write Sharknado 2. That all started when Damon tweeted about it recently, and chances are he was just kidding... but it looks like they're going after him anyway. Rutare even said they're considering approaching Johnny Depp for a role!