He wrote 4 'Sharknado' movies — and left a lasting tooth mark on pop culture history

It's been 11 years since the first "Sharknado" movie chomped its way into pop culture history.

How does one come up with the idea for skies full of flying killer sharks dropping from a tornado, and what people with guts, chainsaws and bombs will go through to save the world?

Back in 2014, I tracked down Thunder Levin, who wrote the first four of six films in the "Sharknado" franchise, to ask that and other questions about the inspiration behind the first two ludicrous but laugh-filled flicks.

A sailor since around age 5, a writer ("Mutant Vampire Zombies from the 'Hood!") and director ("American Warships"), Levin talked everything from the first shark film he ever saw (a documentary called "Blue Water, White Death") to writing the first "Sharknado" movie, putting himself in the hero's shoes and thinking, "What would I do if this crazy situation happened to me?"

So, in honor of Shark Week 2024, and because who better to discuss the impact of "Sharknado," I reached out to Levin again about shark tales, the stars who fought those killer chum-churners and what he's working on now (it's not about sharks).

Question: Was the response to the first movie what you expected?

Answer: The reaction we got from "Sharknado" was certainly the reaction we hoped to get. As to whether we could have expected it or not, that's a different question.

You know, a lot of the Syfy channel movies just came and went without much attention, so the reaction was exactly what we hoped for. And then it went beyond ... it just exceeded our hopes and wildest dreams. It was the type of attention that I think we hoped for, but the volume of it was probably greater than we expected.

Q: How did the series change your life? Or did it?

A: It changed ... I mean, I got an agent that I hadn't had before. And it became easier to get meetings and to get into doors that had previously been closed in the industry. But these were low-budget films; there wasn't a lot of money involved. So, it did not significantly change my lifestyle — and it did not provide me with the lifestyle to which I still wish to become accustomed.

Q: But it was fun, right?

A: It was a huge amount of fun and got a lot of attention. I got to do a lot of press that beforehand, I would not have had. When I tell people I'm a filmmaker, and they ask 'Well, have you done anything I might have seen?' ... the odds of there being a positive answer to that certainly improved.

More: Believe it or not, sharks are a lot like us. But we still don't know very much about them

Q: The incredible cameos and supporting roles, all those celebrities who were in the movies: Any favorites?

A: Judd Hirsch stands out a lot as the taxi driver in the second one. Having him playing a taxi driver was just incredible. Mark Cuban was a lot of fun playing the president in No. 3. And I love Robert Klein. I didn't really interact with him much, but I thought his performance as the mayor of New York City was just pitch perfect. He was like the perfect combination of Ed Koch and Rudy Giuliani before he went crazy. That just sort of warmed my heart ... we'd been talking about a lot of different names to play the mayor of New York and I was the only native New Yorker on the team at that point. And they kept coming up with these names ... I was like, 'No, that's not a New York mayor.' At one point, they even mentioned Donald Trump and I said, 'No, everyone in New York hates Donald.' ... Later on, they were talking about him for president in the third one. I said, 'Come on, that's just not believable.'

Q: Other special moments?

A: John Heard, from the first movie, that was more than a cameo. He was kind of the soul of the first movie, one of the very first people who thought it was going to become something special. And getting to meet him at Comic-Con was great. He was a really cool guy. Wil Wheaton of "Star Trek" and "Big Bang Theory" fame ... right up until the last minute we didn't know if he was going to be able to make it because he was shooting "Big Bang" the day we were shooting the scene he was going to be in. Not only did they let him get out in time to shoot the "Sharknado" scene, but he actually worked it into his "Big Bang" character that he had to go to for an audition for "Sharknado 2." So that was one of these meta, synergistic moments that was really kind of wild.

Q: You wrote these insanely popular movies, but there were some serious moments in there.

A: We tried to try to make sure there was always something of value. I think the difference between the first three and the last three was that I insisted on a certain level of internal logic.

Like once you accept our crazy premise, everything else, you know, will follow reasonably from it. But there were always little things. The whole series was, in fact, a cautionary tale about the dangers of climate change. Obviously, we didn't get too serious about it. But it was always implied that the only way you could get these crazy storms was if things were getting out of control. So, there are little things sprinkled throughout the movies that I think are socially redeeming.

Q: So have you been up close and personal with sharks?

A: The sharks and I have reached an agreement where I don't bother them anymore and they won't bother me. I did speak at the Oklahoma aquarium when they did Sharklahoma and did a screening of "Sharknado." They have like the largest collection of bull sharks in captivity. I got within an inch or two of Plexiglas from the bull sharks ... I take this all back. Years before "Sharknado" I did snorkel with leopard sharks.

We're not their natural prey. So, unless you're doing something that makes you look like their prey, or you annoy them, they should leave you alone. For surfers, it's always kind of tricky, because from below, a surfer can look very much like a seal. But if you're just wading, in theory, you shouldn't have too much interaction with them.

Q: What's next for you?

A: It's not shark related. This has been a very strange time in the film industry, from the pandemic to the strikes to now sort of, a post-strike consolidation, and things have been pretty slow. We're hoping they're going to pick up this fall. And I have three new projects that I'm going to be taking out that I'm very hopeful for. One is a horror film called "Dead Head Hunter," which I hope to direct. And then there are two TV series. One is based on the best-selling novels by Rebecca Cantrell called the "Joe Tesla Chronicles," about a man with agoraphobia who lives beneath New York City. The other is an original of mine called "Hurricane Alabama," about a sheriff returning to his small southern backwater hometown ... it asks, and hopefully answers, the age-old question: Can we go home again?

And it has a surprise, aquatic creature.

Britt Kennerly, an editor at FLORIDA TODAY, touched a shark at the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky in April. It felt like sandpaper and was quite beautiful up close. She also once ate grilled shark. It did not taste like chicken and she can happily go the rest of her life without eating shark again. Reach her on X at @bybrittkennerly or at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: 'Sharknado' writer Thunder Levin talks impact of shark movie franchise