Kevin Bacon played lead character Val McKee in the original film debut in slasher classic Friday the 13th, Bacon's biggest hit of the 1980s was surely iconic 1984 musical drama Footloose.
In Tremors, Bacon plays primary protagonist Val McKee, who works alongside friend and partner Earl Bassett (Fred Ward) as handymen plying their trade in Perfection. The pair decides to depart for greener pastures, but before they can leave, dead bodies begin turning up, and it's subsequently revealed that subterranean worm-like creatures dubbed Graboids are making snacks out of the locals and nearby animals. It's up to a ragtag group of survivors led by Val and Earl to find a way to defeat the Graboid menace.
While not a hit in theaters, Tremors earned positive reviews, and developed a large cult following on home video. This eventually led to 1996 sequel Tremors 2: Aftershocks, which went to straight to video, as all Tremors movies have done since. Fred Ward returned to star as Earl, while Michael Gross returned as ing character Burt Gummer, Perfection's resident lovable gun nut. One person who didn't return for the sequel was Kevin Bacon.
Why Kevin Bacon Didn’t Return for Tremors 2
Kevin Bacon has itted that at the time, he wasn't exactly thrilled about starring in Tremors, feeling like appearing in a movie about rampaging underground worms was a mistake. However, he's also said that filming Tremors was a very fun and rewarding experience, and he's never shied away from talking about it, or any of his other horror and sci-fi roles. In fact, Bacon was originally planned to appear in the sequel, and him dropping out was partially what led to it skipping theaters and going straight to video. Tremors 2 was actually almost canceled at that point, until multiple cast and crew offered to take pay cuts to get the movie made.
According to Tremors 2 director S.S. Wilson, Bacon at one point told him he had changed his mind, and would appear in the sequel after all. Unfortunately, nothing ever became official, and Bacon didn't follow up with him after that conversation. Instead, Tremors 2 mentions in ing that Val got married, left Perfection, and never looked back. In Bacon's defense, it could've been a scheduling conflict, as he was filming the Ron Howard astronaut drama Apollo 13 around the time Tremors 2 was in production. Interestingly, Bacon recently starred in a pilot for a planned Tremors TV series, which ignored the sequels, and found Val still living in Perfection. Syfy ended up ing on the pilot, averting Bacon finally returning to the franchise.
