Focker-In-Law Featurette: Ariana Grande Crashes a Booksmart Reunion at Basecamp

Sixteen years after Little Fockers, Universal is reintroducing the Circle of Trust by way of its newest members. The studio released a new Focker-In-Law featurette, “Basecamp Connections,” on Monday, and it gives no interview time to the franchise’s two headliners. Instead, the 65-second spot catches Beanie Feldstein, Skyler Gisondo, Eduardo Franco and Ariana Grande between setups outside the cast trailers, riffing on a connection three of them already had before anyone was cast: Booksmart.

What the featurette actually shows

“Basecamp” is set-speak for the cluster of trailers where a cast waits between setups, and that is where the interview was shot: Feldstein, Gisondo and Franco on the steps of a trailer, cracking each other up, with Grande walking into frame near the end to cheers. Universal cuts it together with behind-the-scenes footage and a few brief clips — Gisondo wheeling luggage down an airport escalator, Franco mid-laugh at a family gathering, the siblings in matching team jerseys on an outdoor set — but the spotlight stays on the four newcomers. Ben Stiller and Robert De Niro don’t get a word in.

The hook is that Feldstein, Gisondo and Franco all appeared in Olivia Wilde’s 2019 comedy Booksmart — Feldstein as Molly, Gisondo as the lovelorn Jared, Franco as Theo. “Booksmart was like this little thing that no one knew what it was going to be, versus this,” Feldstein says as the featurette opens. “The three of us that are new are stepping into such a legacy.”

Franco gets the best running bit. He says his agent called and told him to “get ready to hang with Beanie and Skyler again,” and that when he read the script, the character — named Eduardo — was “described exactly as Eduardo physically.” He is quick to add, for the record, that he still had to audition and “got the job fair and square.”

Gisondo, who played Feldstein’s admirer in Booksmart and now plays her brother Henry, describes their on-screen history as going “from lover to brother. Difficult, but we’re both very method.” Then Grande arrives — her on-screen credit in the featurette reads “Ariana Grande-Butera” — and owns her outsider status: “I know I wasn’t in Booksmart.” The trio’s comeback is that they weren’t in Wicked, either, which turns into a quick audition for which role one of them would have “slayed” in. The verdict from the group: one of the monkeys.

It is a charm piece, not a plot piece — but it is also the clearest look yet at how Universal wants to position the film: a legacy comedy whose selling point is as much the new cast’s chemistry as De Niro glaring at Stiller.

Who’s who in the new Circle of Trust

Per Universal’s official synopsis, Greg Focker (Stiller) is now a helicopter parent to two adult kids, and things go sideways when his son Henry (Gisondo) brings home a formidable new girlfriend, Olivia (Grande), for the 80th birthday of Greg’s still-intimidating father-in-law, Jack Byrnes (De Niro). Olivia wins over everyone, including Jack; Henry reveals he plans to propose; and Greg, convinced Olivia is hiding something, sets out to unmask her. The studio promises a rivalry between the two future in-laws that escalates “from an airplane to the kitchen to the bike path.”

• Returning: Ben Stiller (Greg Focker), Robert De Niro (Jack Byrnes), Teri Polo (Pam Focker), Blythe Danner (Dina Byrnes) and Owen Wilson as Kevin Rawley, Pam’s impossibly accomplished ex.
• New: Ariana Grande as Olivia Jones, Skyler Gisondo as Henry Focker, Beanie Feldstein as Greg’s daughter Samantha Focker, and Eduardo Franco as Samantha’s boyfriend, Eduardo Villalobos — character names as credited on screen in the featurette.

Gisondo arrives fresh off playing Jimmy Olsen in James Gunn’s Superman — Universal’s own materials bill him as “Superman‘s Skyler Gisondo.”

The franchise it’s walking into

Meet the Parents (2000) and Meet the Fockers (2004), both directed by Jay Roach, and Paul Weitz’s Little Fockers (2010) grossed about $1.16 billion worldwide combined, per Box Office Mojo — $330.4 million, $522.7 million and $310.7 million respectively. The gap since the last entry is 16 years, longer than the entire original trilogy’s run.

The continuity hire is behind the camera. John Hamburg co-wrote all three previous films and now writes and directs this one, from a story he developed with Broad City‘s Ilana Glazer and Austen Earl, based on the characters created by Greg Glienna and Mary Ruth Clarke. Jane Rosenthal, De Niro, Stiller, John Lesher, Jay Roach and Hamburg produce; Universal and Paramount present the Tribeca/Red Hour/Delirious Media/Particular Pictures production.

Universal unveiled the first trailer at CinemaCon in April. “Basecamp Connections” lands with the film just over three weeks out.

Release details

Focker-In-Law opens in theaters on Wednesday, November 25, 2026 — Thanksgiving Eve — from Universal Pictures. More at the official site and @fockerinlaw on Instagram, hashtag #FockerInLaw.

Sources: Universal Pictures publicity materials and the official “Basecamp Connections” featurette (Universal Pictures YouTube, Nov. 2, 2026); universalpictures.com; Box Office Mojo for franchise grosses. Featurette quotes are transcribed from the video; speakers are identified by the on-screen credits and who is on camera.