NEW YORK — Nobody puts Jennifer Grey in a corner. The “Dirty Dancing” star is finally about to reprise her role in the 1987 hit’s long-awaited sequel, going into production this year.
Grey, 65, is officially confirmed to once again play her Golden Globe-nominated role of Frances “Baby” Houseman in “Dirty Dancing 2,” written by Kim Rosenstock and scheduled to start filming later in 2026, The Wrap reports.
“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,” Grey, who will serve as one of the executive producers, told the outlet. “I’m excited to say that it looks like the wait will soon be over!”
Adam Fogelson, chair for the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group, said that with a “super team now in place,” they’re moving “full steam ahead” with a “new theatrical film meant for the big screen.”
Directed by Emile Ardolino and written by Eleanor Bergstein, the original “Dirty Dancing” takes place at Catskills resort Kellerman’s, where goody two-shoes Baby comes of age while falling for Patrick Swayze’s dreamy dance instructor Johnny. It’s unclear how Johnny’s character will factor into the new iteration, following Swayze’s death from pancreatic cancer in 2009.
The latest news comes nearly four years after Lionsgate’s Cinemacon presentation in April 2022. There, the studio showed clips from the original film, with a voice-over promising, “Jennifer Grey returns to Kellerman’s in the next chapter.”
“Dirty Dancing” won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” which plays during Baby and Johnny’s beloved final dance.
The film’s been adapted for the stage, a brief 1988 CBS series and with 2004’s “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” as well as a widely panned musical remake from ABC in 2017.
