Over two decades after the Everett family first ruined Christmas for Sarah Jessica Parker, they are officially coming back. Luke Wilson has confirmed that a sequel to the 2005 holiday hit “The Family Stone” is currently in the works. The follow-up brings back nearly the entire original core cast to explore what happened to the famously neurotic clan after a 20-year time jump.
Speaking to Deadline, Wilson dropped the news fans have been waiting years to hear. “I can’t believe it’s happening,” Wilson said. He confirmed writer and director Thomas Bezucha is returning to helm the project, noting he recently read the script and found it “really funny.”
The project is currently operating under the working title “The Families Stone,” with the 20-year narrative jump and returning core roster confirmed by Dermot Mulroney. Mulroney is set to return alongside Wilson, Parker, Rachel McAdams, Claire Danes, and Craig T. Nelson.
But the reunion carries heavy emotional weight. The sequel’s sudden momentum follows the real-life passing of Diane Keaton in October 2025 at the age of 79. Keaton anchored the original film as matriarch Sybil Stone, whose terminal breast cancer diagnosis drove the central plot. Bezucha reportedly fast-tracked the new script as a direct response to Keaton’s death, writing it rapidly to honor her legacy and explore the fictional family’s grief. Parker and other returning cast members have openly acknowledged the reality of shooting without Keaton, calling the upcoming production a bittersweet experience.
From an industry perspective, revisiting a mid-budget 2005 holiday drama is an unusual play for modern Disney, which inherited the 20th Century Fox catalog. The original film grossed $93 million globally. That is a solid return on investment, but hardly tentpole franchise numbers. Yet, the picture found a permanent home in annual holiday streaming rotations. By leaning into a real-time, 20-year gap and addressing Keaton’s absence head-on, the sequel shifts the property from a standard rom-com reunion into a grounded legacy project about generational grief.