Sixteen names, sixteen professional partners, and one very specific kind of déjà vu. "Dancing With the Stars" announced its Season 35 cast on Wednesday's "Good Morning America," and while the lineup has the usual mix of reality personalities and Olympic athletes, the two names generating the most conversation are actors whose entire early careers were built, quite literally, on dancing. Julia Stiles, who has spent 25 years being asked about "Save the Last Dance," and Jenna Dewan, who met her own screen partner making "Step Up," are both walking back onto a dance floor for the first time since the movies that made them famous.

In Brief

  • ABC unveiled its full 16-star lineup Wednesday on "Good Morning America," and two names carry a weight the ballroom doesn't usually have to explain: Stiles built her career on "Save the Last Dance," Dewan built hers on "Step Up," and this season lands almost exactly on both films' anniversaries.
  • Sixteen names, sixteen professional partners, and one very specific kind of déjà vu.
  • "Dancing With the Stars" announced its Season 35 cast on Wednesday's "Good Morning America," and while the lineup has the usual mix of reality personalities and Olympic athletes, the two names generating the most conversation are actors whose entire early careers were built, quite literally, on dancing.

Two actors returning to where it all started

Stiles, 45, will compete alongside professional dancer Ezra Sosa. She's best remembered for "10 Things I Hate About You" and, especially, 2001's "Save the Last Dance," in which she played a ballet dancer chasing a spot at Juilliard — a role she trained for seriously enough that critics still bring it up whenever her name comes up in a dance context. Stiles has kept working steadily in the years since, including directing her first feature film last year, but she hasn't performed choreography on screen in decades. Dewan, for her part, will dance with pro Val Chmerkovskiy, and comes to the ballroom from 2006's "Step Up," the film where she met her former husband, Channing Tatum, on set. Both movies are having quiet anniversary years in 2026 — 25 years for "Save the Last Dance," 20 for "Step Up" — a coincidence the show's producers were clearly aware of when they sat both women down together for the reveal segment.

A cast built around comebacks, not just newcomers

The rest of the Season 35 roster includes "Grey's Anatomy" and "Glee" alum Harry Shum Jr., who spent years working as a backup dancer for stars like Beyoncé and Jennifer Lopez before his acting career and is now paired with pro Jenna Johnson; celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis, dancing with Alan Bersten; "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" star Tatyana Ali, who will be reunited on set with her former co-star Alfonso Ribeiro, now a co-host; Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech; figure skater and Olympic gold medalist Amber Glenn; and "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" regular Guillermo Rodriguez, among others. The season also carries its own piece of dance-floor history: contestant Sarah Jane Nader will compete with pro Hailey Bills, forming only the third same-sex pairing since the show began. Behind the scenes, the bigger headline for longtime fans may be pro dancer Sharna Burgess returning to the ballroom, five years after she last competed on the show; she's paired this season with "Bachelorette" alum Tyler Cameron. Ribeiro and Julianne Hough are both returning as co-hosts, and the judging panel of Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough is unchanged. Season 35 premieres over two nights, Sept. 15 and 16, on ABC and Disney+, with next-day streaming on Hulu.

Coverage of the cast announcement also draws on reporting from the Associated Press, The Recorder, and StyleCaster.