Shark Week is officially back on Discovery for 2022, with plenty of new shark-filled specials packed into primetime for the next several days. One of those specials is the latest installment in the long-running and fan-favorite Air Jaws series, which began in 2001 and has followed teams of researchers and photographers traveling to South Africa to photograph great white sharks breaching the surface of the water. This year’s is called Air Jaws: Top Guns, and creator and executive producer Jeff Kurr explained why Shark Week embraced Top Gun this time around.
Top Gun is of course one of the iconic films of the 1980s that has stood the test of time, and may or may not be why many fans can burst into a rendition of “Great Balls of Fire” and/or “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” at the drop of a hat. Top Gun: Maverick finally hit theaters earlier this year, so the timing couldn’t be better for a Shark Week special embracing the theme. But how does that work for Air Jaws? Speaking with CinemaBlend, Jeff Kurr explained:
Goodness gracious, fans are in for something new this year with Air Jaws: Top Guns! Andy Casagrande and Dickie Chivell may not exactly be Tom Cruise and Miles Teller, and photographing sharks is about as far from dogfighting in the sky as can be, but they are some of the standouts of Shark Week year in and year out, so who better to take the reins of Air Jaws to try and outdo the originals? Whether or not they succeed, the special should definitely be interesting, and Kurr’s preview reveals that they caught something spectacular on camera in South Africa. He continued:
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The technology for Shark Week certainly has advanced over the years, and Air Jaws will be taking full advantage of that. Casagrande and Chivell undoubtedly needed all the advantages they could get, since – as fans saw in previous years of Shark Week – orcas have been killing a lot of the great whites on the coast of South Africa, so finding breaching sharks has become harder.
So, what are Andy Casagrande and Dickie Chivell like as partners, and will viewers get some Top Gun vibes from their dynamic as well as the format of the special? Everybody will have to wait until the special airs on July 25 to find out whether Casagrande or Chivell truly is a Maverick, but EP Jeff Kurr promised that they’re “funny” and “have great energy” together. He also had a long history with both before bringing them into Air Jaws in this new way, as he shared:
Andy Casagrande has been all over Shark Week for many years, so his origin coming at least partly from a shark song is a fun bit of trivia. As for Dickie Chivell, he and Kurr actually collaborated on another special for Discovery’s 2022 shark celebration, called Shark House and airing on Thursday. Kurr continued:
Luckily, the wait for Air Jaws: Top Guns is almost over. The latest Air Jaws installment of Shark Week premieres on Monday, July 25 at 8 p.m. ET on Discovery, following the Stranger Sharks special featuring Noah Schnapp of Stranger Things fame at 7 p.m. The night continues at 9 p.m. with Great White Serial Killer: Fatal Christmas, also produced by Jeff Kurr.
With Tops Guns and Fatal Christmas just one night after Great White Open Ocean tells the story of one man’s shark attack survival with a new format, Shark Week 2022 is opening strong when it comes to great white sharks. That may not be great news for any seal fans, but Shark Week always tends to be a bad time for seals! For some more viewing options now and in the coming weeks, check out our 2022 TV premiere schedule.