‘Meet the Parents 4' Reveals Oscar-Nominee Is Joining Cast

Yahoo

a day ago

Ariana Grande's movie career is already, ahem, Defying Gravity.
The Wicked star has already started prepping for a new hit film, Meet the Parents 4, alongside none other than Hollywood legends Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro.
The movie is set to hit the big screen on Nov. 25, 2026, only four days after Grande's second Wicked film arrives in theaters.
Meet the Parents 4 will be the newest installment in Universal's classic comedy films. The first in the series, which came out in 2000, featured Ben Stiller as a nurse who faced hilarious mayhem while visiting his girlfriend's parents (Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner). Teri Polo stars as Stiller's girlfriend in the film, and Owen Wilson stars as her ex-boyfriend. The flick was an immediate hit and two follow-up movies were promptly rolled out in 2004 and 2010.
Polo and Danner are expected to return alongside Stiller and De Niro, but the deals have yet to close, reported The Hollywood Reporter.
In the upcoming installment, the son of Stiller and Polo gets engaged to an aggressive and dominating woman who isn't a great match. Grande allegedly plays this fiancée.
Grande, who largely kicked off her career on Nickelodeon sitcom Victorious before excelling as a pop star, recently forayed back into acting in this year's record-breaking musical remake of Wicked. She earned an Oscar nomination for her role, along with Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA nominations for best support actress. The movie earned almost $800 million worldwide.
Although casting directors have been tripping over each other to book her, she's declined several projects from Universal, Sony and Warner Bros., including one that would have given her the ability to pick her co-star. But Meet the Parents 4 finally caught her eye.
When Meet the Parents first came out, it grossed over $330 million in the global box office, a number that would today be much higher. It also gave rise to another line of comedy sensations: Meet the Fockers with Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Streisand, and Little Fockers, which culminated in a total franchise gross of $1.13 billion globally.
John Hamburg, who wrote all three existing films, will also write the screenplay for the new movie. It will be produced through Jane Rosenthal and De Niro's Tribeca Productions and through Jay Roach's Delirious Media. Roach directed the first three films.
Stiller will also produce with John Lester via Red Hour Films and Hamburg will produce through Particular Pictures. The project will be overseen by Jacqueline Garell and Matt Reilly.