If you’re already missing the sandworms of Dune or Beetlejuice, the third most iconic movie sandworm is suddenly prepped to make a bizarre comeback. Although there were several direct-to-video sequels to the 1990 film Tremors, the makers of the original are poised to throw out all that continuity and utterly reboot the franchise with a new sequel. It’s been a long time coming, but it appears that after 34 years, Tremors fans are about to return to Perfection, Nevada. The only question now is, will Kevin Bacon return as Val McKee? Because if he does, a Tremors reboot could end up being the best legacy sequel of the modern age.
According to Fangoria original screenwriters of Tremors, S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, have, after a long battle, regained the copyright to the first film in the franchise. Speaking at a Tremors convention called TremorsFest, Wilson said: “What we have now, just got, are the rights to our original screenplay. That’s good, we can remake [Tremors] if we want to.”
Set in the sleepy fictional town of Perfection, the original Tremors was a horror-sci-fi-comedy mash-up, which found the denizens of the town being devoured by outrageous pseudo-subterranean sandwormy creatures called Graboids. Focused on two handymen, Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward), the movie champions the less-than-brilliant underdogs in an adventure that is as exciting as it is hilarious. And while the kitsch humor of the original Tremors was present in the various sequels, nothing was quite like the original. Plus, the first one was the only one in which Kevin Bacon appeared. (Not counting his appearance in a pilot for a Tremors TV series.)
As recently as 2022, Bacon said that working on Tremors — very early in his career — was a “magical time,” which indicated to some that he’d be willing to return for another installment. And now, that the the Tremors creators have the full rights to make another movie, it would seem that may very well be the plan.
As reported by Fangoria, Wilson made additional comments on the Talking Tremors podcast, making it clear that their production company, Stampede Entertainment, will likely not remake the original film. Instead, getting the rights back to the screenplay almost certainly means a new sequel, which would establish continuity that was contrary to the other direct-to-video-sequels. “Stampede has zero intention to do a remake of the first movie,” Wilson said, indicating that the next direction for Tremors would be “to try to make a sequel that’s set in Perfection, Nevada with the remaining cast and crew and another Graboid threat.”
Will it happen? Before now, there was next to zero chance of a good version of Tremors coming back since the creators did not have full rights to the screenplay. But because that’s changed, it would seem if there’s not a surefire confirmation yet, at least, there’s a tiny bit of movement, a disturbance in the sand, that could be hiding a brand-new Graboid.
