After it premiered on Thursday night, I would have expected everyone to be talking about ‘Pacific Rim’ on Friday morning. But SyFy’s new original movie ‘Sharknado’ was the talk of the town as apparently everyone and their mothers were watching the camp-tastic feature. And while they didn’t score huge ratings, the network is already talking about a sequel.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the executive VP of programming and original movies at SyFy Thomas Vitale revealed that there were already rumblings for a follow up to the film starring ‘90210’ alum Ian Ziering, ‘American Pie’ media darling Tara Reid, and John Heard of the original ‘Home Alone’ movies:

“We’ve had a lot of meetings, emails. I’m not being coy, [but] that’s obviously being talked about. [However,] there’s nothing going to be announced now just because we haven’t had real discussions with the real people we have to talk to about that.”

In response to the sequel rumors, producers Micho Rutare and David Latt of The Asylum, an all-in-one studio, production company, distributor and financer, expressed that they’re not at all bothered to be associated with such campy material as ‘Sharknado’, ‘Mega Shark Vs. Mecha Shark’, and ‘3-Headed Shark Attack’ and shared some ideas for the potential sequel with THR:

Micho Rutare: We want Damon Lindelof to write the sequel. He said he would, and I don’t know if he’s serious or not, but we can do it right now. In all seriousness, it’s really Syfy’s call, but we certainly would do it.

David Latt (Laughing): We’re going to skip to No. 3, it’s easier that way; two is always a letdown, but three is the mea culpa! Anything is possible. You should see the emails we’re getting. It’s not off the table. Ian Ziering paved the way for the next installment to have Johnny Depp. He’s a trailblazer, so we’re going to go out to Depp next time. It’s going to be a tough negotiation to get Ian back, but we’ll figure it out!

Then, after being pressed further for sequel details and a potential title, Latt responded by contacting another fan of their work:

“We’re going to have to negotiate with Mia Farrow to star in the film so it might be Mia Farrow Presents … But we’re going to come up with some titles, and I’m sure it will be a very obvious title like the first one (laughs).”

If you were to look at the numbers, ‘Sharknado’ wouldn’t impress anybody. According to Deadline, the program only drew in just over 1.4 million viewers, which is below average for a SyFy original movie. However, the social media numbers were off the charts and landed the made for TV movie the distinction of being SyFy’s most social telecast ever. At the show’s peak, it clocked in 5,000 tweets per minute and 387,000 social mentions, besting such shows as ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Big Brother’. Those damn sharks even came within 2,500 tweets of the Red Wedding on ‘Game of Thrones’!

Among those reacting to the incredibly unlikely “success” story were some of Hollywood’s best and brightest, including ‘Prometheus’, ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’, and “potential” ‘Sharknado’ sequel writer Damon Lindelof:

 

Here are a few other choice tweets from the night:

Based on the reaction to the first showing of ‘Sharknado’, SyFy has revealed that there will be an encore presentation, so if you missed out on it the first time, be sure to tune in on Thursday, July 18 at 7:00pm ET.

If you did happen to catch it the first time around, let us know what you thought about the movie in the comments below.