Tremors: Shrieker Island Star Michael Gross on The Movie's Shocking Ending

With a shock ending that seems to set up the end of the long-running franchise, Michael Gross may have played Burt Gummer, for the last time in he just-released Tremors: Shrieker Island. The film, which debuted on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital today, centers on a group of trophy hunters who go after genetically-modified graboids on a tropical island. Things go wrong, and Burt is called in to take matters into his own hands. Shrieker Island marks the sixth film in which Gross has played Burt since 1990 -- and the character also appeared in a season of TV back in 2002.

In a film that sees the veteran survivalist tell another character that there's no winning against the monsters he fights, "just survival," Gross takes on a version of Burt that is looking backward (including potentially reuniting with old flame Jas (Caroline Langrishe). But what's next for the character, or the franchise, if things have a futrue at all? We asked Gross himself.

Spoilers ahead for Tremors: Shrieker Island, out today.

"We shot it both ways, where everybody's mourning Burt, and he climbs up over the cliff and looks at all of them in mourning and goes, 'Jesus, God, I'm not dead,'" Gross told ComicBook.com. "And he's really pissed off at them. It's like, 'How would you possibly think...?' But he's bloodied, just he's a mess. He looks like he's been through an earthquake, crushed by a house, but he's alive. And he says, 'You idiots. Of course, I'm alive.'"

As Gross previously told us, though, the death of Burt was Universal's idea, not Gross's, because the studio and filmmakers thought that after thirty years, it would lend some real emotional heft to the film if the audience finally had to say goodbye to Burt. That means the alternate ending was likely never meant to see the light of day.

"They decided it just had this punch," Gross said. "Frankly, I thought to myself -- I didn't express it to them, but I thought to myself -- 'Maybe Universal's getting a little tired of this franchise.' Because this wasn't my idea."

It wasn't his idea, but that is not to say that Gross felt forced out. He signed off on it, saying that he assumed the series was done after four, so who's to argue with seven?

"I said, 'I can live with this,'" Gross said. "Because they came to me. They said, 'Look, you've been doing this so long. What do you think?' And I said, 'Well, as long as we kind of leave the door open.' I mean, I can kind of see an eighth film where it opens with Burt in a hospital bed, in a full body cast and saying, 'I survived.' He could hardly move a muscle. And maybe eight is...if I had a concept for eight, it would be Burt horribly injured, but in a motorized, weaponized wheelchair that has rocket mounts on the side and can leave an oil slick behind like James Bond's car. So nobody can chase him."

Of course, Gross also said recently that if Universal wanted to reboot the franchise again with Burt in a minor role as the cranky survivalist neighbor -- the character's starting point, before all the other original Tremors leads fell away -- he'd be delighted for it.

"I always said, if Kevin Bacon or Fred [Ward] or Reba [McIntire] or anybody [wanted to return], I'd be there in a minute," Gross said. "Just because one, I love Burt, but I always thought of him as this guy kind of on the fringes, and I just came to the fore because everybody else walked away."

Tremors: Shrieker Island is now available on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital.