Jean Smart might be The Family Stone's new mommy

The movie will be set 20 years after Diane Keaton's beloved character, Sybil Stone, died.

By Olivia Singh  |  September 23, 2026 | 3:29pm
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Jean Smart might be The Family Stone's new mommy

Production on The Family Stone sequel is ramping up, and Jean Smart is joining the gang for the holidays. On Wednesday, multiple outlets, including IndieWire, reported that eight-time Emmy winner Smart, fresh off the conclusion of Hacks and with a lot more free time, would be part of the ensemble Searchlight film. Smart’s character, whose name hasn’t been revealed yet, will be trying to fill the shoes of late matriarch Sybil Stone (Diane Keaton), as a new love interest to Kelly Stone (Craig T. Nelson). The first film, a chaotic mix of comedy and drama that somehow worked, followed the Stone family as its clashing personalities gathered for Christmas, grappling with Sybil’s impending death and the arrival of Ben Stone’s (Luke Wilson) high-strung girlfriend, Meredith Morton (Sarah Jessica Parker).

The official logline for the sequel reads: “Twenty years after their mother’s passing, the Stone family reunites for Christmas only to face the season’s biggest surprise: their father has unexpectedly invited the woman he’s fallen in love with to meet the family.” It’s not surprising that the follow-up to the 2005 classic is going in this direction. Almost a year ago, following Keaton’s death at 79, The Family Stone writer-director Thomas Bezucha told CNN that he was working on a script and was only interested in doing it if the main cast returned. The filmmaker got his wish, since original stars Parker, Wilson, Nelson, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Tyrone Giordano, Elizabeth Reaser, Paul Schneider, and Brian White will all be back. The sequel will be written and directed by Bezucha and reportedly starts filming in New York this fall.  

 
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