It’s a sad good news/bad news scenario for Syfy’s upcoming ‘Tremors’ TV series. The good news is, this marks the first time Kevin Bacon will reprise his role as Valentine McKee since the cult classic first film was released back in 1990. The bad news is, this is also the first time the franchise will not include stalwart Michael Gross as Burt Gummer.
Via Facebook, Gross stated that he was in no way attached to the upcoming series:
“For Tremors fans who have been asking, ‘Will Kevin Bacon return to do the films?’ or ‘Is your Burt Gummer character going to be in Kevin’s series?’ I think we can say with a good deal of certainty that the answer to both questions is ‘no.’ The series is currently shooting in and around Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I have no other details.”
‘Tremors’ was not a hit with either critics or audiences when it first arrived in theaters. This was the reason why Bacon never returned for sequels. As he stated earlier this year:
“I was like – why would I make a sequel of a bomb? That makes no sense to me. I am not going to make another movie that’s not going to do well at the box office. That is not a good career move.”
But ‘Tremors’ found its audience on home video and cable and became a fun, campy favorite which eventually led Universal to greenlight a sequel. But without Bacon, ‘Tremors 2: Aftershocks’ was released straight-to-video in 1996. Gross, however, reprised his role, as did Fred Ward, who played Earl Bassett. That was Ward’s last go with ‘Tremors’, but Gross headlined three more sequels, ‘Tremors 3: Back To Perfection’ (2001), ‘Tremors 4: The Legend Begins’ (2004– although Gross played the ancestor of his modern day Burt Gummer) and ‘Tremors 5: Bloodlines’ (2015) which introduced Jamie Kennedy as Gummer’s son Travis B. Welker. Gross also starred on ‘Tremors: The Series’ which also aired on Syfy in 2003-04 but only lasted for one season.
It’s unknown why Gross was not invited back, considering that when all is said and done, he has contributed more to the ‘Tremors’ franchise than Bacon or any other actor. But Gross isn’t completely out of the ‘Tremors’ game. He and Jamie Kennedy will be back in ‘Tremors 6’ which arrives on DVD and Blu-Ray on January 30, 2018.
The ‘Tremors’ TV series pilot continues filming this month.
Are you upset that Burt Gummer won’t be back?
Source: Facebook
