Ariana Grande has reportedly found her first post-Wicked role. Although the multi-talented performer first got her start as an actor in television series including Victorious, Sam & Kat, and Scream Queens, she appeared in very few film or television projects from the mid-2010s through the early 2020s, due to her meteoric rise as a pop star with hit singles such as “The Way,” “Thank U, Next,” and “Bang Bang.” However, she returned to acting with her Oscar-nominated performance as Glinda in the 2024 Broadway musical adaptation Wicked, which will be followed by the upcoming Wicked: For Good on November 21.

ᴅᴇᴀᴅline reports that Ariana Grande is set to reteam with Universal by boarding the new Meet the Parents movie. She joins a cast that already includes original stars Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Blythe Danner, and Teri Polo. The project, which will be the fourth feature-length installment in the franchise, is being written and directed by John Hamburg and is reportedly set to debut on November 25, 2026, which is that year’s Thanksgiving week.

The Hollywood Reporter also reports that Grande will be playing the fiancée of Stiller’s character’s son, who is described as “a ball-busting woman who seems all wrong for him.”

What This Means For Meet The Parents

The Franchise May Be Getting A Legacy Sequel

If these reports are correct, it seems entirely likely that the Meet the Parents franchise will be getting a full-on legacy sequel in 2026. This makes sense, considering the fact that there hasn’t been an installment since 2010. However, all three previous installments focused on putting lead couple Greg Focker (Stiller) and Pam Byrnes (Polo) into various predicaments, namely him meeting her parents (in 2000’s Meet the Parents), her parents meeting his parents (in 2004’s Meet the Fockers) and the duo navigating parenthood while Greg hopes to become the new family patriarch (in 2010’s Little Fockers).

However, now that Greg and Pam’s kids are grown up and most likely in their early twenties (their twin children turned five in Little Fockers), they may be taking over as the leads of the franchise. While the core cast remains intact and will likely continue to drive the comedy with their antics, the younger generation – including the new character played by the Wicked star – may be in the process of being built up to spearhead potential future sequels, should the fourth installment become a box office success.

Our Take On This Meet The Parents 4 Update

Ariana Grande Could Become The Queen Of Thanksgiving Movies

This update also reveals that Ariana Grande could have three major Universal movies in a row come out on three consecutive Thanksgivings, as both 2024’s Wicked and 2025’s For Good are also Thanksgiving releases. This could set the star up to become a major figure in the Thanksgiving movie season. If she adds any more hit movies to this chain, she could even rival Dakota Johnson’s run as the queen of Valentine’s Day between the February releases of 2015’s Fifty Shades of Grey, 2016’s How to Be Single, 2017’s Fifty Shades Darker, and 2018’s Fifty Shades Freed.

Source: ᴅᴇᴀᴅline & THR