Jean Smart Joins The Families Stone Sequel

Jean Smart has joined the cast of The Families Stone, Searchlight Pictures’ sequel to the 2005 film The Family Stone. The production is planned to begin filming in New York in fall 2026, and much of the original film’s cast is set to return. Searchlight’s published logline places the story 20 years after the death of the Stone family’s mother. The family reunites for Christmas, where their father surprises them by inviting the woman he has fallen in love with to meet them. The logline does not identify the woman or name the actor playing her. Smart’s character and her connection to the family have not been disclosed. One account described her as a possible new love interest for Kelly Stone, played by Craig T. Nelson, but that detail is not confirmed by the published logline. Searchlight has not publicly established whether Smart plays the woman at the center of the reunion. Returning cast members include Nelson, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson, Claire Danes, Tyrone Giordano, Elizabeth Reaser, Paul Schneider and Brian White.