‘Focker In-Law' sets Thanksgiving 2026 release date as Ariana Grande joins the cast. Everything we know about the fourth ‘Meet the Parents' installment.

Yahoo

5 days ago

The Ben Stiller- and Robert De Niro-led film has received its official title and release date.
Another year, another family affair — and this time, Ariana Grande will be joining the mix.
On Monday morning, Universal Pictures confirmed on Instagram that Focker In-Law, the fourth installment of the Meet the Parents film franchise, will hit theaters on Thanksgiving 2026. The family comedy comes 25 years after the release of the first film, which famously starred Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo.
'The Focker family is expanding. See #FockerInLaw only in theaters Thanksgiving 2026,' reads the post.
Capturing that seemingly universal fear of meeting one's future in-laws, 2000's Meet the Parents follows Greg Focker (Stiller), a groom-to-be who becomes embroiled in a disastrous first meeting with his girlfriend Pamela Byrnes' (Teri Polo) skeptical family — including her overprotective ex-CIA father (De Niro).
The film went on to earn more than $330 million at the box office, becoming the seventh-highest-grossing film globally of that year, per Deadline.
The second and third film installments, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers, chart the progression of this messy family dynamic — from Greg and Pamela's ill-fated attempt to bring the Fockers and Byrnes together, to their decision to welcome children of their own.
With Focker In-Law, audiences will finally get to catch up with the outrageous Focker-Byrnes family several years later. The already star-studded cast got a little glitzier earlier this year, when Grande, fresh off her Oscar-nominated performance in Wicked: Part One, signed onto the project.
From casting updates to the film's confirmed name and release date, here's everything we know about Focker In-Law so far.
What's 'Focker In-Law' about?
While the cast has been tight-lipped about what Focker In-Law is about, Stiller did liken the upcoming film to 'a mirror' to 2000's Meet the Parents. With this in mind, it's possible that the film will revolve around Greg and Pamela's son Henry, as he prepares to bring his fiancée home to meet his parents.
Stiller, De Niro and Jay Roach, the director of the first two films, reunited during a 25th anniversary screening of Meet the Parents at this year's Tribeca Film Festival. Stiller revealed that they required an 'organic reason' to make Meet the Parents 4, now officially titled Focker In-Law.
'What spurred the idea is that I'm the age that Bob [De Niro] was when we did the first movie,' Stiller said on a panel after the screening. 'It felt like a mirror to the first film, where one of my kids is thinking about introducing his person to the family.'
When is it coming out?
Focker In-Law, according to Universal Pictures' Instagram post, will be released on Nov. 26, 2026.
Who's joining the cast?
Grande has officially joined the Focker family! While Universal Pictures has yet to reveal who Grande will portray in the Focker In-Law, the Hollywood Reporter said that she'll allegedly play the 'ball-busting' fiancée of Greg and Pam's son.
The Eternal Sunshine pop star has previously demonstrated her prowess for comedic acting: as Glinda in Wicked: Part One and during her lauded 2024 appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Stiller, without giving too much away, praised Grande for her comedic contributions to the upcoming film.
'I can't really talk too much, I guess, at this point about the movie,' he said on the Today show in June. 'But the character she's playing is — she's going to be really, really funny and kind of the whole engine of the new movie. So it's exciting.'
'Half the things — the scenes that I have with her will be singing scenes,' De Niro joked on the same Today show.
Grande discussed her desire to continue acting during a 2024 appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon.
'I would love to,' she said. 'I'm like — I'm very scared to freak my fans out when I talk about this just because music and being on stage will always be part of my life. So that will — I will always be there. We'll always have that together. But I just — I really do love acting, and I think, yeah, I would love for that.'
Superman actor Skyler Gisondo is also set to join the Focker family, per Deadline, likely as Greg and Pam's son.
Who from the original cast and crew is returning?
De Niro, Stiller, Wilson, Danner and Polo are all set to return for Focker In-Law. John Hamburg, who co-wrote all three previous films, penned the screenplay for the upcoming movie, according to the Hollywood Reporter. He is also set to direct it. Roach is also one of the film's producers.
Has the cast said anything about it?
De Niro revealed that he'd actually been pushing for another sequel for many years.
'When we filmed the last one,' he said during a Meet the Parents 25th anniversary panel at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, 'I was sitting with Ben and John Hamburg. I said, 'Let's start writing the next one now.' And they were just humoring me. Now we are finally doing the next one.'
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