Jean Smart Joins the Stone Family as New Love Interest in ‘The Families Stone’ Sequel

The Stone family is setting an extra place at the Christmas table — and the woman taking it is one of the most beloved actresses in Hollywood.

Jean Smart has officially joined the cast of The Families Stone, Searchlight Pictures’ long-awaited sequel to the 2005 holiday favorite The Family Stone. The studio made the announcement on Wednesday, September 23, with a short and sweet Instagram post that read simply: “Welcome Jean Smart to The Families Stone.”

Fans did not need more convincing. The comments lit up almost instantly, with viewers calling the casting perfect, inspired, and exactly what a sequel two decades in the making needed. And honestly? It’s hard to argue. When it comes to playing women who walk into a room and quietly take charge of it, there may be no one working today quite like Jean Smart.

Who Is Jean Smart Playing?

Here’s where it gets interesting. The Families Stone picks up twenty years after the original film, and this time the family patriarch has a surprise of his own. Craig T. Nelson returns as Kelly Stone, and per Searchlight’s official logline, the story goes like this: “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.”

That woman is Jean Smart’s new, still-unnamed character — Kelly’s new love interest.

To be clear, she is not stepping into Diane Keaton’s shoes. Keaton’s Sybil Stone died at the end of the original film, and the sequel treats her absence as the story’s emotional starting point. Smart is playing an entirely new character, and the drama — comedy, too, if Bezucha’s track record holds — will come from watching a tight-knit clan react to the idea that their widowed father has finally moved on. Bringing a new partner home for the holidays to meet your adult children is nerve-wracking under the best of circumstances. Doing it in the Stone family, where strong opinions were practically a second language, should make for one deliciously uncomfortable Christmas dinner.

Why This Casting Is a Stroke of Genius

Jean Smart, 75, is having the kind of career renaissance most actors only dream about. She wrapped Hacks earlier this year after five seasons as the razor-tongued comedy legend Deborah Vance, a role that turned her into a late-career phenomenon and collected a pile of Emmys. This will be her first movie role since 2022’s Babylon, and her first feature in what feels like a very long wait for her film fans.

And her history with this kind of material? Deep. Smart has been stealing scenes for decades — as Charlene on Designing Women, as Lana Gardner on Frasier, as Martha Logan on 24, as Laurie Blake on Watchmen. She’s played funny, she’s played formidable, she’s played heartbreakingly vulnerable, often within the same scene. The character she’s joining here will need all of that: warmth enough to win over the audience, steel enough to stand up to the Stone children, and comic timing sharp enough to hold her own opposite this particular ensemble.

It also just feels right. The original Family Stone was built around formidable women — Keaton’s Sybil, Sarah Jessica Parker’s tightly wound Meredith, Rachel McAdams’ scene-stealing Amy. Smart belongs in that company. She doesn’t just join ensembles; she elevates them.

There’s another layer worth loving here: the original film was famous for its controlled chaos, that dinner-table energy where affection and exasperation arrive in the same breath. Nobody on television does that register better than Smart. Watch any episode of Hacks where Deborah Vance has to hold her own against someone half her age with twice her confidence, and you’ll see exactly the muscle this role will need. The Stone kids are grown now, twenty years more stubborn than they were in 2005, and their father’s new girlfriend is going to need every weapon in the arsenal. Smart has them all.

Everyone’s Coming Home for Christmas

The rest of the clan is returning, too. Searchlight confirmed that most of the original cast is back: Rachel McAdams as Amy Stone, Dermot Mulroney as Everett, Luke Wilson as Ben, Sarah Jessica Parker as Meredith Morton, Claire Danes as Julie Morton, Tyrone Giordano as Thad Stone, Elizabeth Reaser as Susannah Stone, Paul Schneider as Brad Stevenson, and Brian White as Patrick Thomas.

Behind the camera, Thomas Bezucha — who wrote and directed the original — is returning to write and direct the sequel, with original producer Michael London also on board. That’s a big deal. Holiday sequels have a spotty track record, but keeping the same creative voice goes a long way toward making this feel like a genuine continuation rather than a cash-in.

The project only became official earlier this month, when Searchlight announced the sequel and its returning cast. Less than two weeks later, Smart’s casting landed. Filming is expected to take place in New York this fall. No release date has been announced yet, though a holiday-season slot would be the obvious play — imagine the marketing writing itself.

The Diane Keaton-Shaped Space in the Story

No discussion of this sequel works without talking about Diane Keaton. The Oscar-winning actress died on October 11, 2025, of pneumonia, at 79. Her Sybil Stone — the fierce, funny, deeply loving matriarch at the center of the 2005 film — was the heart of the original, and her character’s illness drove its most emotional moments.

The sequel is, in a very real sense, a tribute to both the actor and the character she created. Picking up twenty years after Sybil’s death gives the story room to explore how a family reshapes its traditions, its rituals, and its relationships in the long aftermath of loss — and how it makes room for someone new. That’s a beautiful premise for a Christmas movie, and it’s hard not to feel that Keaton’s spirit will be all over it.

Smart’s casting even carries its own quiet poetry. Like Keaton, she’s one of those rare performers audiences feel they know personally — beloved across generations, funny in a way that never undercuts the feeling underneath. She can’t replace Sybil Stone. Nobody could. But as the woman who helps Kelly Stone start his next chapter, she might just be perfect.

What Comes Next

Production starts in New York this fall, which means set photos and first looks are only a matter of time. Smart’s character name, the exact plot details, and — the question every fan is really asking — how the Stone children react to their father’s new romance will all trickle out in the months ahead.

One thing’s certain: after twenty years, the Stones are finally coming home for Christmas. And this time, they’ve got Jean Smart. Pass the wine.

Source: Just Jared