In 2017, ABC aired a three-hour long musical remake of Dirty Dancing starring Abigail Breslin as Baby, Colt Prattes as Johnny, Nicole Scherzinger as Penny, and Bruce Greenwood and Debra Messing as Baby’s parents. Neither viewers nor critics had the time of their lives watching it, though. It was widely panned. The one and only Baby, Jennifer Grey, was offered a role in the production, but turned it down because it “didn’t feel appropriate” for her to do it.
Flash-forward to 2020 when Deadline reported that a new, official sequel to the original movie was in the works, this time with Grey involved in both an acting and executive producing capacities. No further details were released until this past Tuesday, when Lionsgate announced a screenwriter, production team, and production start date. They also confirmed that, yes, Grey is still returning as Baby.
Jennifer Grey is revisiting the time of her life.
Lionsgate announced on Tuesday, Jan. 27, that the actress will officially reprise her role as Frances “Baby” Houseman in its upcoming Dirty Dancing sequel, with Hunger Games and Crazy Rich Asians producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson at the helm.
The new installment will be written by Dying for Sex screenwriter Kim Rosenstock, and production is expected to start later this year.
“The role of Baby has held a very deep and meaningful place in my heart, as it has in the hearts of so many fans over the years,” says Grey, 65, who starred opposite the late Patrick Swayze in the 1987 original.
“I’ve long wondered where we might find Baby years later and what her life might be like, but it’s taken time to assemble the kind of people that I felt could be entrusted to build on the legacy of the original film … and I’m excited to say that it looks like the wait will soon be over,” she adds.
Producer Jacobson says Dirty Dancing is “that rare film that is as emotional, exhilarating and rebellious today as it was the year it was released.”
“To be able to work with Jennifer Grey and Lionsgate on the sequel is a genuine joy for Brad and me. We feel so fortunate to have been invited back to Kellerman’s for one more dance,” she says.
Grey, also an executive producer on the project, has talked about returning for a Dirty Dancing sequel for years, and it was revealed to be in the works back in 2020.
Later that year, the actress told PEOPLE the continuation film won’t attempt to recapture the chemistry she had with Swayze, who died in 2009 at age 57 of pancreatic cancer.
“All I can say is there is no replacing anyone who’s passed — you never try to repeat anything that’s magic like that,” she said at the time. “You just go for something different.”
And so, the Reboot Era continues. I know most of us are over Hollywood’s constant obsession with bringing back older, beloved properties, but I really do try to give each idea the benefit of the doubt. You never know if we’re getting the sequel we didn’t know we needed. As such, I don’t want to throw too much cold water on this movie, but…is there a Dirty Dancing without Patrick Swayze (RIP)? I mean, I know that there are plenty of ways they could go about doing a Baby-only story! It’s more realistic that Baby and Johnny went their separate ways after the events of the first movie, but they’d have to address his death, right? Will the sequel focus on a now-middle-aged Baby or will she be a secondary character, with, say, her daughter being the dancer?
This is more of a production musing than storyline proposal, but if they do go the super nostalgic route and have this sequel take place at the same resort, I’m curious if they’d try to return to film at Lake Lure, NC, which was decimated by Hurricane Helene last year. The lake itself is still closed right now, but is supposed to reopen in May. Lake Lure and the surrounding towns like Chimney Rock could really use the boost to the local economy.
photos credit: IMAGO/Avalon and Getty
I’m rooting for Jennifer and all, but I just don’t see how this works without Swayze. I hope it’s a really good story with an epic script.
This is the sequel we really don’t need. The original lives in a time and place Gen X misses, but we will never get it back.
I’m Gen X but I think this story is set more in my parents time. Just before or at the beginning of the Vietnam war, or police action, or whatever it was being called.
the story is set in the 60s (early 60s? I dont remember) but the movie itself is pretty squarely GenX.
confession: I dont really like dirty dancing.
Creating a Dirty Dancing sequel is like Jennifer Grey getting a nose job. The original will always be the best.
I’m assuming they’re going to have to write that in?
Baby was a teen in the early 60s? I wonder what the time period will be.
I didn’t see Dirty Dancing for a long time- the title turned me off.
it was in the theatre for like a year, and the movie’s dancers had their own tour- it was a HUGE deal.
Obviously the new story would have to be fully its own, with just hints of the nostalgia we felt for the first one. Doing it right is like threading a needle.
I just watched the Taylor Swift eras doc series and she talked about how each era’s outfit was meant to be reminiscent of that era’s original tour outfits/album artwork, etc. That was part of the appeal.
I just think with Dirty Dancing, and no Patrick Swayze, it is going to be a tough road to making something people feel good about.
I recently rewatched DD and was amazed at how important the abortion subplot was. It was something that I totally didn’t get when I was a kid. I say make it an important subplot again seeing as since we’ve slid down so far.
There was a lot of *stuff* that happened in the original that was relevant in a lot of directions. The abortion subplot, the patriarchal reach of gender expectations and it’s limits (on men and women, as we clearly see) . If they are interested and willing and brave enough to make a contemporary film that does that same thing, I would be really intrigued. Baby returning to a place that was a pillar of the conventional, traditional, familial, and cultural conservatism. She experienced a LOT of real life there. Her coming of age (and the critical subplot with sister and her beau and his abandoned paramour) rippled through so many biases and cultural ideas in the context. It would be very interesting to see the same trick on the same stage in a different era. It has different stakes now. I don’t recall off the top of my head but if they did the 60s thing in the 90s for the benefit of perspective, nostalgia, and gently examining cultural mores that are not technically current but still influential, we’re due for a millennial treatment of it? That could have some neat story.
The movie was set in the early 1960s I think. Would they stick with the timeline? If so we’d see Baby (what was her real name again?) as an older adult in the early 2000s. Those Catskills summer resorts had pretty much gone by the wayside at that point.
I’d watch it just to see what they do with it. Out of nostalgia. I was a teen when it came out and people said I looked like Jennifer Gray. I don’t really think I resemble her, either pre- or post-nose job. Mainly I just had the same hair and maybe similar build, but that was enough to make people draw a comparison.
Please, no. No Swayze. No go.