“Wicked” star Ariana Grande has lined up her next film project.
The pop star and actress has joined the cast of “Meet the Parents 4.” She will star in the forthcoming comedy opposite returning franchise stars Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. “I Love You, Man” filmmaker John Hamburg, who co-wrote all three previous “Meet the Parents” films, is set to write and direct the sequel.
In addition to Stiller and De Niro, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo are expected to reprise their “Meet the Parents” roles in the new film as well.
This news came less than a year after Grande received critical acclaim and a 2025 Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Glinda opposite Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba in 2024’s “Wicked.” Grande, whose career has always consisted of both acting and music work, joins “Meet the Parents 4” as her first post-“Wicked” screen role.
De Niro and Jane Rosenthal will produce “Meet the Parents 4” through their Tribeca Productions banner, as will Stiller and John Lesher through Red Hour Films. Hamburg is also attached as a producer alongside original “Meet the Parents” filmmaker Jay Roach. To date, the “Meet the Parents” franchise has grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office across its first three entries.
Its first entry, 2000’s “Meet the Parents,” helped cement both Stiller and De Niro as viable 21st-century stars. While that film mined comedy out of the very simple, relatable fear of having to meet your partner’s parents, its sequels expanded the franchise’s fictional family by introducing, among other characters, Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman as the eccentric parents of Stiller’s Greg Focker.
Universal has scheduled “Meet the Parents 4” to hit theaters on Nov. 25, 2026. Assuming it sticks to that date, that means the film will be released just shy of 16 years after the franchise’s critically panned, Paul Weitz-directed third entry, 2010’s “Little Fockers.”
Before she appears in “Meet the Parents 4,” Grande will next be seen reprising her role as Glinda in another Universal title, “Wicked: For Good,” which is set to be released in theaters Nov. 21.
