Ben Stiller's $1.1B Comedy Franchise Unleashes War With Ariana Grande In Focker In-Law Trailer

It's time to meet the anticipated comedy sequel Focker In-Law.

The upcoming movie is the fourth installment in the long-running franchise that kicked off with 2000's Meet the Parents. Focker In-Law, which debuts on November 25, follows the franchise's central couple - Greg (Ben Stiller) and Pam Focker (Teri Polo) - as they meet their son's fiancée, who they think is a bad match for him. Also returning are Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner as Pam's parents and Owen Wilson as her ex, Kevin. Joining the cast are Skyler Gisondo and Beanie Feldstein as Pam and Greg's kids, as well as Wicked star Ariana Grande as the incoming fiancée.

After debuting the official Focker In-Law trailer at CinemaCon, the annual convention for theater exhibitors, Universal Pictures has unveiled the video online. The trailer shows Robert De Niro's Jack Byrnes performing a lie detector test on his prospective granddaughter-in-law, Ariana Grande's character Olivia Jones. During the test, Greg walks in and learns that Olivia thinks he might not be the best father to his son, Henry (who was previously played by Colin Baiocchi).

While the situation calls to mind the rough dynamic between Greg and Jack when they first met, Jack finds himself impressed with Olivia, which causes him to want to allow her to enter his circle of trust much sooner than he ever did with Greg, leading Greg to feel somewhat jealous. Watch the full trailer below:

Universal also debuted the official poster for Focker In-Law. The image shows Jack posing with Olivia, with Greg struggling to get in the shot, his face only half in frame. This dynamic re-emphasizes the themes present in the trailer for the comedy sequel. Check out the full-size image below:

One thing that the new trailer proves is that, even though there hasn't been a new installment in the franchise in more than 15 years, since the debut of 2010's Little Fockers, Focker In-Law is still seeking to recapture the energy of the original Ben Stiller movie in multiple ways. In addition to the many legacy stars reprising their roles and the fact that the overall storyline mimics the original movie, the new installment contains multiple callbacks to specific details from the original trilogy.

The callbacks in Focker In-Law include the return of the lie detector machine and a potentially violent encounter with a dog. However, it remains to be seen if these callbacks help the new movie appeal to the franchise's core audience or hinder it, preventing it from telling its own story. However, if it does appeal to both old and new audiences, it could become a hit at the level of the original movies, which collectively grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.