Jean Smart joins The Families Stone as original cast returns
Jean Smart has joined Searchlight Pictures' sequel to the 2005 Christmas ensemble The Family Stone, titled The Families Stone, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter on 23 September 2026.
Her role is secret. Character details are being kept under wraps, according to Deadline.
The official logline, or one-sentence plot summary, picks up 20 years after the death of the Stone family mother. The Stones reunite for Christmas and meet their father's new love.
Almost the entire original family is back. Sarah Jessica Parker returns as Meredith Morton, Dermot Mulroney as Everett Stone, Claire Danes as Julie Morton and Rachel McAdams as Amy Stone. Craig T. Nelson is back as father Kelly Stone, alongside Luke Wilson as Ben Stone, Tyrone Giordano as Thad Stone and Elizabeth Reaser as Susannah Stone.
Paul Schneider also returns as Brad Stevenson, with Brian White as Patrick Thomas. That is ten returning players opposite Smart's newcomer.
Thomas Bezucha, who wrote and directed the original, returns to write and direct the sequel. Principal photography, the main shoot, is set to begin in the autumn in New York. The film is produced by Michael London and Shannon Gaulding for Groundswell Productions and by Sarah Jessica Parker and Alison Benson for Pretty Matches Productions.
The first film remains a favourite holiday rewatch for many viewers. It took $92.9 million worldwide, in figures cited by The Hollywood Reporter. Diane Keaton played matriarch Sybil Stone in that film. Keaton died at age 79, Deadline reported.
Smart arrives on a career high. On 14 September she won at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards for playing Las Vegas stand-up Deborah Vance on HBO Max's Hacks. The win made her the first female performer to win an acting Emmy for every single season of a television series. It was her eighth career acting Emmy, tying Cloris Leachman and Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the all-time record for acting wins by a performer.
For fans, this means a familiar table with one new chair. The story turns on how the Stones respond to their widowed father bringing someone new home for the holidays.
