The creators of the highly anticipated Dirty Dancing sequel are still working out how to honor the late Patrick Swayze — but they know what they won’t be doing.
“That’s one of the things that you really have to focus on: how to let people mourn him in a movie,” Nina Jacobson, one of the sequel’s producers, said during a panel at IndieWire’s Future of Filmmaking 2026 Summit on Saturday, October 17.
Swayze died in September 2009 at age 57 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
“Don’t worry, we won’t be bringing him back with AI,” Jacobson added of the original Dirty Dancing’s leading man.
Set in the summer of 1963, Dirty Dancing follows 17-year-old Frances “Baby” Houseman (Jennifer Grey), who falls in love with dance instructor Johnny Castle (Swayze) while on vacation with her family at a resort in the Catskill Mountains of New York.
The 1987 romantic drama, directed by Emile Ardolino and written by Eleanor Bergstein, became a global phenomenon, grossing $214 million worldwide on a $4.5 million to $6 million production budget. The film also won an Oscar for Best Original Song for “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.”
“I remember when I first saw it, it seemed like very glossy entertainment,” Jacobson said on Saturday. “Now it feels like kind of an indie. They take a lot of risks, and they touch a lot of topics that people don’t touch in movies anymore.”
Though the plot of the Dirty Dancing sequel has remained under wraps, Jacobson said she and the team behind it are “trying to chase the feeling of that original movie.” (The project will be written by Kim Rosenstock of Dying for Sex and coproduced by Jacobson and Brad Simpson.)
“Being able to tell a young love story that could take some of those risks but also inspire those feelings felt like an incredible chance for us,” Jacobson added.
A prequel to the original film, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, was released in 2004 and starred Diego Luna, Romola Garai, Sela Ward, John Slattery, Jonathan Jackson, January Jones, Mika Boorem and Swayze.
Lionsgate confirmed in January that the follow-up to the 1987 film would begin filming later this year, with Grey, 66, reprising her role as Baby.
“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,” Grey said in a statement at the time. “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.”
She added, “I’m excited to say that it looks like the wait will soon be over!”
Grey previously opened up about the sequel in 2020 when the project was first announced.
“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 told People at the time. “You just go for something different.”
