Bet on Fin Shepard When a Sharknado Hits Vegas in 'The 4th Awakens'

Ian Ziering is back battling the sharknado for the fourth installment of the hit franchise

Photo: Tyler Golden/Syfy

Las Vegas is known for having a lot of card sharks, but Sin City is about to be be invaded by a whole different kind of shark on Sunday!

Yes, Syfy’s epic Sharknado franchise is flooding the Vegas Strip with its fourth installment Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens, and PEOPLE has an exclusive sneak peek.

Sadly, the sharknado hits just as Matt Shepard (Hannah Montana alum Cody Linley) is parachuting out of plane alongside new wife Gabrielle (Everybody Hates Chris alum Imani Hakim) – forcing Matt’s dad Fin (Ian Ziering) to save the day … again.

But if there’s anyone worth betting on, it’s Fin Shepard – seeing as he’s never failed to be a hero in the three previous films.

Ziering tells PEOPLE: “We started off with a character who was an ordinary man and was willing to do extraordinary things to keep his family safe and together – that’s the thematic thread that weaves through all of these movies. He’s just doing everything he can possibly do for the love of his family. From there they build off these incredibly scenarios that really can only exist in the world of Sharknado.”

For Ziering, 52, the chance to play an action adventure hero in a science-fiction franchise is something that keeps him coming back.

“I kind of caught lightening in a bottle,” he says. “How many Jason Bourne movies will Matt Damon make? How many Mission Impossible movies will Tom Cruise make? How many Fast and the Furious movies will Vin Diesel make?”

“When you find something that works – as an actor, you’re very lucky in the first place. But the double bonus is if you enjoy what you’re doing and if people respond positively to it,” he adds.

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As for what fans can expect in the fourth installment, Ziering says you can expect the story to top itself.

“After we shot Sharknado 3, and April, played by Tara Reid, gets crushed by space debris after she gave birth in her space suit in the belly of a shark as it fell to earth – I really just couldn’t see it being possible to raise the bar,” he says. “But I’ve got to give credit to [Sharknado screenwriter] Thunder Levin, who keeps coming up with these preposterous scripts that make sense in this Sharknado world.

Sharknado 4: The 4th Awakens premieres Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on Syfy.