Jean Smart is joining the Stone family for Christmas.
Smart has been cast in “The Families Stone,” the sequel to the beloved 2005 holiday movie “The Family Stone,” Searchlight Pictures announced on Sept. 23.
The news comes just days after Smart won her fifth Emmy for her role as the sharp-tongued, formidable Deborah Vance on “Hacks.”
Smart will play the new love interest of Kelly Stone, the family patriarch portrayed by Craig T. Nelson, according to Variety. The casting comes nearly a year after Diane Keaton, who played Kelly’s wife, Sybil, died at 79.
The sequel picks up 20 years after Sybil’s death at the end of the first film. According to Searchlight Pictures’ official logline, the Stone family reunites for Christmas and discovers that their father has unexpectedly invited the woman he has fallen in love with.
Much of the original cast is returning, including Rachel McAdams as free-spirited daughter Amy Stone, Dermot Mulroney as eldest son Everett Stone and Luke Wilson as easygoing Ben Stone. Sarah Jessica Parker will also reprise her role as tightly wound Meredith Morton and Claire Danes as her younger sister, Julie Morton. Thomas Bezucha, who wrote and directed the original, is also back.
Filming is expected to begin this fall in New York, according to Variety.
The reunion has been warmly received by the returning cast. Wilson told Entertainment Tonight in July that the script made him eager to return, particularly in the wake of Keaton’s death.
“Tom Bezucha is a great writer and a great director, and I read the script, and it’s really funny, and it’s so nice that everybody wants to work together again,” he said. “After the death of Diane Keaton, it’ll be even more meaningful because she was so great to be around on the first one.”
The sequel was first revealed in November 2025, shortly after Keaton’s death. When Bezucha first conceived the sequel, he said he would only pursue it if the original cast was interested in returning.
“I’m not interested in the Brady family reunion without the original Jan,” he told CNN.
Bezucha also shared that he had already been working on the script when he learned Keaton had died.
“I’ve been haunted by the loss of Sybil for months now while I worked on it,” Bezucha said. “Mentally, I’ve been spending time in that house where I’ve been missing her for a while already.”
Now, Bezucha said, he wants to “honor her even more” with “The Families Stone.”