Dirty Dancing sequel announced, Jennifer Grey to return as star

Share this Article:

Almost 40 years after the original Dirty Dancing was released, along comes news of a sequel and/or reboot, with Jennifer Grey to again star as Baby. Have you ever woken up in the early hours of the morning, unable to get back to sleep again, and thought, “I wonder what Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman’s up to? ... Dirty Dancing sequel announced, Jennifer Grey to return as star

Almost 40 years after the original Dirty Dancing was released, along comes news of a sequel and/or reboot, with Jennifer Grey to again star as Baby.

Have you ever woken up in the early hours of the morning, unable to get back to sleep again, and thought, “I wonder what Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman’s up to? She must be well into her 60s now.”

If you have, then good news: producers Nina Jacobson and Brad Simpson have announced they’re making a sequel to the 1987 hit Dirty Dancing, which will see Jennifer Grey reprise her role as Baby.

As first written about by The Hollywood Reporter, the new film will be produced through Jacobson and Simpson’s Color Force production company, which might sounds like a washing detergent, but is also behind the recent Hunger Games prequels, among other things.

“The role of Baby has held a very deep and meaningful place in my heart,” Grey said of her return to the Dirty Dancing universe, “as it has in the hearts of so many fans over the years. 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!”

Directed by Emilie Ardolino and Eleanor Bergenstein, the original Dirty Dancing was set in the 1960s, and saw middle-class teenager Baby holiday at a fancy resort, Kellerman’s, where she falls in love with working class (and much older) dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze). The film was a hit, while its zeitgeist-grabbing soundtrack also sold many records.

Neither Grey nor the sequel’s producers have divulged anything about the sequel’s plot, which will inevitably have to exclude Swayze, who passed passed away in 2009. One of Lionsgate’s bosses, one Adam Fogelson, has said, however, that the sequel will include “a return to Kellerman’s”.

With the original taking place in 1963, a sequel would presumably have to take place about 40 years later in order to account for Grey’s superannuation. If the new Dirty Dancing follows the pattern of the legacy sequel, then, we’ll see a new generation of characters arrive at the fancy resort, with Baby now cast in the role of a mentor figure.

Swayze will also have to be referenced in some way, perhaps as a painting on a wall or – shudder – as an all-CGI deepfake re-creation, like the ghost of Egon Spengler (a digitally-revived Harold Ramis) in Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

We’re guessing that the film will also avoid all reference to the ill-fated 2004 sequel, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.

We shall end this news post with some title suggestions for Lionsgate. These are: