Sharknado is hitting theaters for its 10th anniversary — refresh yourself on the ridiculous SyFy hit

Hot on the heels of Meg 2: The Trench chomping into theaters comes the news that Sharknado will return for a theatrical run 10 years after it was initially released.

On Aug. 15 and 16, SyFy's unexpected made-for-TV hit will swim into select theaters with a remastered version that promises "100s of new special effects," "new kills," "more sharks," and "more 'nado."

The Asylum, the studio that produced Sharknado, is marketing its movie the only way it knows how: By making you think of better movies. See its new Barbie-themed poster below.

Since it's been a decade since Sharknado fever swept the nation, let's refresh ourselves on the basics of what's easily one of the dumbest franchises of all time.

Who was in Sharknado?

The film starred 90210's Ian Ziering and American Pie star Tara Reid, as well as the late John Heard.

"You want to get people who are familiar to the audience and put them in a different type of project than people are used to seeing them in," producer Thomas Vitale told EW in 2013. "Tara Reid is someone who's never done this kind of movie before, so she's a surprising choice. Ian Ziering is not known for this kind of movie, so he's another great choice."

What is Sharknado about?

It started as a joke in another B-movie written by Sharknado director Anthony C. Ferrante. "As a throw-away joke line in Leprechaun's Revenge, he used the word 'sharknado,'" Vitale said. "This crazy thing was happening with this killer leprechaun in the town, and a reporter says to someone something like, 'We haven't had a situation like this since that sharknado hit last year.'"

The producer said they were later looking for a shark movie for the summer, and The Asylum pitched a shark storm movie, which turned into Sharknado. 

The plot goes something like this: A hurricane isn't just pummeling Los Angeles, it's scooping sharks out of the ocean and spitting them out into the flooded streets of the city. Ex-surfer Fin (Ziering) and his estranged wife April (Reid) must protect themselves and their daughter, Claudia (Aubrey Peeples), from chomping beasts that attack from below and above.

Syfy 'Sharknado'

How did Sharknado fare upon release?

As you might expect, expectations for Sharknado were low when it premiered on SyFy in July of 2013. It benefitted, however, from its most ridiculous scenes going viral on social media. At the height of Sharknado mania, there were roughly 5,000 tweets per minute featuring the hashtag #sharknado.

Screenwriter Thunder Levin told The Hollywood Reporter that nobody expected the initial buzz to last. But then a follow-up screening on SyFy saw Sharknado's audience grow from 1.3 to 1.9 million viewers. On its third airing, the audience grew again to 2.1 million viewers. A sequel was inevitable.

How many Sharknado sequels are there?

To date, Sharknado has spawned five sequels.

Following the first film's success, SyFy moved quickly to get a sequel into production. Sharknado 2: The Second One — they've all got pithy titles — hit the small screen just a year later. Ziering and Reid returned, bringing with them stars like Vivica A. Fox, Andy Dick, Billy Ray Cyrus, Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath, and Oscar-nominated actor Judd Hirsch.

Sharknado sequels became an annual affair. The Second One was followed by 2015's Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!, 2016's Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens, 2017's Sharknado 5: Global Swarming, and 2018's The Last Sharknado: It's About Time. Ziering and Reid remained with the franchise to the end, and saw celebrities like Frankie Muniz, Mark Cuban, Bo Derek, Clay Aiken, David Hasselhoff, Gary Busey, Cheryl Tiegs, Chris Kattan, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and Ne-Yo join them along the way.

You can return to where it all started — just a bar owner and professional surfer trying to save his ex-wife and daughter from a storm of flying sharks — when Sharknado returns to theaters on Aug. 15 and 16.

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