Grease 2

• Maxwell Caulfield as Michael Carrington, a British exchange student and Sandy Olsson's cousin.[4]
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Stephanie Zinone, the leader of the Pink Ladies.

• Adrian Zmed as Johnny Nogerelli, the leader of The T-Birds
• Christopher McDonald as Goose McKenzie
• Peter Frechette as Louis DiMucci
• Leif Green as Davey Jaworski

• Maureen Teefy as Sharon Cooper
• Lorna Luft as Paulette Rebchuck
• Alison Price as Rhonda Ritter
• Pamela Segall as Dolores Rebchuck

• Didi Conn as Frenchy
• Eve Arden as Principal McGee (Arden's final film role)
• Sid Caesar as Coach Vince Calhoun
• Dody Goodman as Secretary Blanche Hodel
• Eddie Deezen as Eugene Felsnick
• Dennis C. Stewart as Leo Balmudo (Craterface), leader of the Cycle Lords (appeared as the gang leader of the Scorpions in the previous film)
• Dick Patterson as Mr. Spears (appeared as Mr. Rudie in the previous film)

• Tab Hunter as Mr. Stuart
• Connie Stevens as Miss Yvette Mason
• Jean and Liz Sagal as the Sorority / Cheerleader Twins
• Matt Lattanzi as Brad, one of the Prep-Tones
• Donna King as Girl Greaser (lead dancer)[5]
• Lucinda Dickey as Girl Greaser
• Ivy Austin as Girl Greaser 'Francine'
• Andy Tennant as Boy Greaser 'Artie' (Arnold in Grease)
• Bernard Hiller as Boy Greaser
• Tom Villard as Boy Greaser 'Willie' (performs "Cry" at the talent show)
• Vernon Scott as Henry Dickey, one of the Prep-Tones
• Tom Willett as bowling alley manager (uncredited)
• Janet Jones as the girl who missed her last two periods (uncredited)
• William N. Clark as Cycle Salvage Yard Manager (uncredited) – also was a cameraman
• Aurelio Padrón as Boy Greaser
• John Robert Garrett as Boy Greaser (Bubba in Grease)
• Helena Andreyko as Girl Greaser (Trix in Grease)
• Dennis Daniels as Boy Greaser (Bart in Grease)
• Vicki Hunter as Girl Greaser
• Sandra Gray as Girl Greaser (Big G. in Grease)
• John Allee as student with basketball (Calhoun: "We'll put high-heels on your sneakers and we'll make you a center!")
• Michael David Eilert as Boy Greaser (uncredited)
• Bill Baker as High School Student (uncredited)

Grease co-producer Allan Carr had a deal with Paramount Pictures to be paid $5 million to produce a sequel, with production beginning within three years of the original film. Carr decided to hire Patricia Birch as director for the sequel, as she had previously served as the choreographer for the stage and film versions of Grease. Birch was initially hesitant to accept after learning that neither composers Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey nor John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John would be involved in the film.[6] Bronte Woodard, the writer who adapted the original stage material for the original film, had died in 1980, and Canadian comic Ken Finkleman (who was also writing and directing Airplane II at the same time) was tasked with penning a new script mostly from scratch. The total budget for the production was $11.2 million, almost double the budget of the original.[7] Birch's approach to the material was to hew closer to the original, grittier stage productions from which Grease came; she had resisted changes made to the original film (largely made at Newton-John's behest) but was overruled.[8]

Grease 2 was intended to be the second film (and first sequel) in a proposed Grease franchise of four films and a television series. (The third and fourth films were to take place in the 1960s and during the counterculture era.) However, the projects were scrapped due to the underwhelming box office performance of Grease 2.[9] Maxwell Caulfield was unhappy with the film's "drab" title, and unsuccessfully lobbied to change it to Son of Grease.[10]

Birch proposed an idea to feature Travolta and Newton-John reprising their characters as a now married couple running a gas station near the end of the film, with Travolta to sing a new number "Gas Pump Jockey;"[11] this did not come to fruition.[6] Paramount tried to get Jeff Conaway and Stockard Channing from the first film to do cameos but this did not happen (Channing, by then 37 years old, had left Hollywood for a time in the early 1980s to focus on her stage career).[12] Early plans for Grease 2 had Conaway and Channing's characters, Kenickie and Rizzo, as main characters while they attended summer school,[11] which would have culminated in the two getting married.[8]

Timothy Hutton was announced as the male lead,[13] but Maxwell Caulfield was cast after impressing producers off-Broadway in Entertaining Mister Sloane. Caulfield had already made his Broadway debut with roles in The Elephant Man and Entertaining Mr. Sloane. Having seen his performances, Allan Carr offered Caulfield the role of Michael over thousands of applicants.[14] Unlike co-star Pfeiffer, Caulfield's career following Grease 2 was damaged by the film's failure. He has been quoted as saying: "Before Grease 2 came out, I was being hailed as the next Richard Gere or John Travolta. However, when Grease 2 flopped, nobody would touch me. It felt like a bucket of cold water had been thrown in my face. It took me 10 years to get over Grease 2."[15]

With only a few television roles and small film appearances, Michelle Pfeiffer, then aged 23, was a relatively unknown actress when she attended the casting call audition for the role of Stephanie. Other actresses considered for the part included Lisa Hartman, Kristy McNichol, Andrea McArdle, and singer Pat Benatar.[16] Pfeiffer was a wild card choice, but according to Birch, she won the part because she "has a quirky quality you don't expect."[17] She later commented on being cast:

That was really weird for me. I'd been taking singing lessons and I had taken dance, because I loved to dance, but I had never considered myself a professional at all. I went on this audition as a fluke, and somehow, through the process of going back and dancing, and then going back and singing, I ended up getting the part. I went crazy with that movie. I came to New York and the paparazzi were waiting at the hotel. I know the producers put them up to it. I am basically very private, and I'm really nervous about doing publicity. Every time I set up an interview, I say, "That's it, this is my last one. I'll do this because I committed to doing it, but I'm never doing another one." It was insane.[18]

Lorna Luft was the last star cast.[19] The part played by Connie Stevens was originally meant for Annette Funicello but she was unable to appear because her schedule as Skippy peanut butter spokeswoman[20] did not allow her time to film the scene.[21]

Adrian Zmed had previously played the role of Danny Zuko in the stage version of Grease, a role he would later reprise in the 1990s.[22]

Scenes at Rydell High School were filmed at Excelsior High School, a recently closed high school in Norwalk, California.[7] Filming took place throughout a 58-day shooting schedule during the autumn of 1981.[9] According to director Birch, the script was still incomplete when filming commenced.[23] Sequences that were filmed but cut during post-production include scenes in which Frenchy helps Michael become a motorcycle rider, and a sequence at the end of the film showing Michael and Stephanie flying off into the sky on a motorcycle.[24]

In the film, after Stephanie wins the contest, it goes on to show the luau in the final scene. Originally, there were a few minutes dedicated to a scene in which Michael (believed to be dead in his alter ego, by Stephanie) comes out on stage as Stephanie is exiting the stage, unbeknownst to her that he is the cool rider and he is alive. He attempts to ask her what's wrong and she storms past him and runs off crying, then it cuts to the luau. There was a scene within the "Who's that Guy?" number in which Goose accidentally smashes Rhonda's nose at the Bowl-A-Rama door. None of these scenes have been shown since the film's release.

The sequel took in just over $15 million after coming at fifth on opening weekend behind E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Rocky III, and Poltergeist.[2]

As of July 2022, on Rotten Tomatoes, the film had an approval rating of 35% based on 43 reviews, with an average rating of 4.3/10. The site's consensus read: "Grease 2 is undeniably stocked with solid songs and well-choreographed dance sequences, but there's no getting around the fact that it's a blatant retread of its far more entertaining predecessor."[27] As of October 2020, on Metacritic it had a score of 52% based on reviews from 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[28]

Janet Maslin of The New York Times condemned the film as "dizzy and slight, with an even more negligible plot than its predecessor had. This time the story can't even masquerade as an excuse for stringing the songs together. Songs? What songs? The numbers in Grease 2 are so hopelessly insubstantial that the cast is forced to burst into melody about pastimes like bowling."[29]

Variety commended the staging of the musical numbers, writing that Patricia Birch has come up with some unusual settings (a bowling alley, a bomb shelter) for some of the scenes, and employs some sharp montage to give most of the songs and dances a fair amount of punch."[30]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 2 stars out of 4, saying: "This movie just recycles Grease, without the stars, without the energy, without the freshness and without the grease."[31]

Pfeiffer received positive notices for her first major role. The New York Times review cited her performance as the "one improvement" on the original film: "Miss Pfeiffer is as gorgeous as any cover girl, and she has a sullen quality that's more fitting to a Grease character than Miss Newton-John's sunniness was."[29] Variety wrote that she was "all anyone could ask for in the looks department, and she fills Olivia Newton-John's shoes and tight pants very well."[30] Pfeiffer told the Los Angeles Times three years later:

That film was a good experience for me. It taught me a valuable lesson. Before it even came out the hype had started. Maxwell and I were being thrust down the public's throat in huge full page advertisements. There was no way we could live up to any of that and we didn't. So the crash was very loud. But it did teach me not to have expectations.[32]

Barry Diller of Paramount said that the film "on no level is as good as the first. The quality isn't there."[33]

Jim Jacobs described it at the time as "awful ... the pits."[34] In an interview 27 years later, Jacobs noted that Grease 2 "still brings a brief frown to his face."[35]

During an appearance for Rotten Tomatoes to promote the film Tick, Tick... Boom!, British actor Andrew Garfield cited the film as one of his five favorite musicals, calling it "great".[36]

Pfeiffer was nominated for a 1983 Young Artist Award in the category of Best Young Motion Picture Actress.

The film was nominated for a Stinkers Bad Movie Awards for Worst Picture.[37] Later on, the Stinkers would unveil their picks for the 100 worst films of the 20th century with their "100 Years, 100 Stinkers" list. Grease 2 ranked in the listed bottom 20 at #13.[38][39]

The film was given a special screening at the 2021 online TCM Festival.