AceShowbiz -

"Sharknado 4" has got an official title and it's an homage to one of last year's biggest flicks. The fourth installment of the sci-fi thriller franchise is called "Sharknado: The 4th Awakens", which is clearly inspired by "Star Wars: The Force Awakens".

The two-hour original movie will pick up five years after events in "Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!", with Ian Ziering's Fin enjoying a sharknado-free existence... until the natural disasters begin cropping up in expected places.

Syfy let fans fans decide through a voting whether Tara Reid's April lives of dies after the character's fate was left hanging in the balance at the end of the third movie. David Hasselhoff and Ryan Newman will also return.

New cast members include Gary Busey as April's father Wilford Wexler, a lead scientist at Astro-X who is "at the forefront of advances in the field of robotics," Cheryl Tiegs as Raye (Fin's mother and Col. Gil Shepard's ex-wife), Tommy Davidson as Aston Reynolds (the CEO of tech company Astro-X), Cody Linley as Matt (Fin and April's eldest son), Imani Hakim as Gabrielle (Matt's best friend and a fellow soldier) and Masiela Lusha as Gemini (Fin's cousin).

Anthony C. Ferrante returns as director with Thunder Levin once again writing the script. The movie is set to premiere Sunday, July 31 at 8/7c on Syfy.