Like virtually everyone else my age, Dirty Dancing is a touchstone film for me. It’s not my favorite movie from the era, but I’ve seen it enough times to quote almost every line, even four decades later. The Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze-led movie is getting a follow-up, and in 2026, that means one question has to be addressed. We know Grey is returning, but will there be an AI version of Swayze? The answer is reassuring, and not just because of how it’ll impact the story.
No, There Won’t Be An AI Version of Johnny Castle
Johnny Castle (Swayze) is one of the two lead characters in the movie, of course, and while Grey will be reviving her role as “Baby” Houseman, Castle won’t be in the movie. He won’t be played by another actor, and most importantly, the makers of the movie won’t use AI to gin up some version of Johnny that would probably look and feel like another iconic Swayze character, Sam Wheat in Ghost. Producer Nina Jacobson addressed how Swayze’s death in 2009 will affect the movie, and thankfully, it’ll only be in heartwarming ways. Jacobson told the crowd at Indie Wire’s Future of Filmmaking Summit:
One of the things that you really have to focus on: how to let people mourn him in a movie. And don’t worry, we won’t be bringing him back with AI.
I am very relieved by the comment, though I will admit I wasn’t that worried that they would try to use an AI version of Swayze. The character is so beloved by so many, as Swayze was for his portrayal, that adding in some digital recreation of the late actor would almost certainly be seen as being in poor taste, to say the least. How can you recreate the chemistry Swayze and Grey had, anyway?
There are, of course, other times that AI has been used to recreate deceased actors and their characters, like Peter Cushing's Grand Moff Tarkin in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Recently, Gene Wilder's likeness was used in Wonka's The Golden Ticket, which you can see with a Netflix subscription. I'll be completely candid: it's always a big turn-off for me, as it would be here.
It’s wonderful that they are clearly going to make sure that Johnny is going to be acknowledged in the movies, allowing fans to “mourn,” as Jacobson says. It would honestly be gross if they tried to incorporate the character into the story with AI. I, along with many others, I assume, would be appalled and probably would refuse to see the movie at all. Johnny is a great character, let him live on in our memories the way he’s supposed to. Don’t ruin it with AI slop.
It Seems Like Great Care Is Going Into This
The other great news in the discussion is that Jacobson is working with Jennifer Grey on the plot of the movie, and, according to Jacobson, great care is going into the sequel. Jacobson said:
Grey has incredible insights into why she thinks [Dirty Dancing] has lasted so much or what it is about her character that spoke so much to people and still does.
She added that what is really important is to get the vibe right, and it's safe to say having a digital Johnny wouldn't give us that. According to Jacobson:
We were talking about this with adaptations: a movie can’t be just like the book, or a show can’t be just like the book that you are adapting. But it should make you feel the way the book did, and it should feel the way the book felt. [We are] trying to chase the feeling of that original movie. … 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.
It’s said to be set in the ‘90s, which would make Baby around 50 years old. That’s about the age her father, Jake Houseman, was in the original, which was set in 1963. Jake, played by the late Jerry Orbach, was a proud father taking his daughters on vacation in the Catskills. Could the new movie have a similar premise? It seems likely.
The movie was originally rumored to begin production in 2026, but as of now, it has not begun. Hopefully we’ll see it on the 2027 movie schedule, but that may be a bit ambitious at this point.
