The Stone family has another Christmas guest to meet, and this time, Dad is bringing the romantic surprise. Searchlight Pictures announced The Families Stone, a sequel to the 2005 holiday comedy-drama, will reunite much of its original cast. The new story finds the family gathering for Christmas when their father introduces the woman he has fallen in love with.
Sarah Jessica Parker, Rachel McAdams, Claire Danes, Dermot Mulroney, Luke Wilson, and Craig T. Nelson are returning, along with Tyrone Giordano, Elizabeth Reaser, Paul Schneider, and Brian J. White. Thomas Bezucha, who wrote and directed the original, will also write and direct the follow-up.
Meeting the family proved complicated enough the first time. In the original movie, Everett Stone, played by Mulroney, brings his girlfriend Meredith, played by Parker, home for Christmas. Her attempt to fit in with the Stones unravels through uncomfortable encounters and romantic complications, including her growing connection with Everett’s brother Ben, played by Wilson.
The sequel takes place 20 years after the death of family matriarch Sybil Stone, whose illness was central to the first film. Diane Keaton, who portrayed Sybil, died in October 2025 at age 79. Bezucha had already been working on the sequel before learning of her death, making the return to the fictional family a reunion shaped by a real loss.
Production is scheduled for New York this fall. A release date has not been announced.