A Look at the Step Up Film Franchise

A dance-focused film franchise with six movies and a TV series, Step Up began in 2006 with its first film starring Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan. Anne Fletcher directed, and Duane Adler and Melissa Rosenberg wrote the original script.

The plot of Step Up involves a young man named Tyler, played by Tatum, who must perform community service at a performing arts school. He meets Nora, played by Dewan, and they eventually become dance partners.

While the subsequent films feature a different cast of characters, there are several connecting threads. Andie, the lead character in Step Up 2: The Streets, is the foster brother of Tyler. Another foster sister of Tyler, Camille, played by Allison Stone, is the female lead alongside Moose, played by Adam Sevani, in the third film, Step Up 3D.

The fourth and fifth films, Step Up Revolution and Step Up: All In, involve dance groups instead of individual dancers. In the fifth film, characters from past movies, including Moose and Andie, join together to compete in The Vortex dance competition. The final movie, Step Up: Year of the Dance, is a Chinese film that, while part of the franchise, has no characters from previous films.

Overall, the Step Up series made more than $650 million in box office revenue. The TV series Step Up: High Water ran for three seasons from 2018 to 2022 on YouTube Red and Starz.