Of Course There’s Going to Be a ‘Sharknado 4,’ But With a Jason Todd Twist

Sharknado 3 may not have the same critical acclaim as its predecessors (this is a real sentence I just typed), but by gum, if they don’t know how to drive audiences into a feeding frenzy. Having already been to space, a fourth installment is officially ensured, but the return of one cast member will be up to you.

You’re warned of Sharknado 3 spoilers from here on out (this is another real sentence I just typed), but if you missed out on the closing moments of Syfy’s shark-infested trilogy capper, the fate of Tara Reid’s April was left in jeopardy from falling space shuttle debris. Things seemed pretty dire to begin with, having just given birth inside a shark corpse falling to Earth (I’m not sure what real sentences are anymore), but the immediate announcement of Sharknado 4 made clear that fans will be able to decide her fate for a sequel.

While fans busy themselves with potential for #AprilLives and #AprilDies by voting on Syfy, here’s what network heads told THR of the twist:

The original ending for the film that director Anthony C. Ferrante was passionate about was having it all end on the beach in this wonderful family moment where they all hold hands, look up at the sky, Fin salutes his dad, and then we fade out. I said, “That’s great, but it sounds like the ending of a trilogy of a franchise that’s not going to continue. It’s a satisfying ending that doesn’t go on.” I wanted to take a page out of some of the classic television stunts that have been done and contemporize them.

We needed to do something that was going to keep the audience in jeopardy and want to come back for another Sharknado. That led to the idea that I came up with in having the audience vote. Sharknado, more than anything on television, is a social interaction with the viewers, so we wanted to make it interactive. I’m hoping that we’re going to break the Internet this time with the “April lives, April dies” at the end.

I think it’s going to be precedent-setting. I can’t think of an instance where another network has done something of that nature at the end of an event.

Batman fans will recall that DC Comics once pulled a similar stunt with Jason Todd’s Robin in 1988, opening up phone lines to determine the character’s fate at the hands of the Joker. Todd just narrowly won the reaper’s vote, but are audiences so cruel as to kill off April for Sharknado 4? We’ll find out before long.