Sarah Jessica Parker has admitted that The Family Stone sequel is a “bittersweet quandary” following the death of co-star Diane Keaton.

The 2005 Christmas comedy follows Everett Stone as he brings his uptight girlfriend Meredith, played by Parker, home for the holidays to meet his family, headed up by Keaton’s matriarch Sybil.

Weeks after Keaton died in October, the film’s writer and director Thomas Bezucha revealed that he had been working on a sequel.

Addressing the sequel news in an interview with Variety on Tuesday night, the Sex and the City actress said, “I’m so excited… but it’s a rather bittersweet quandary given the loss of Diane Keaton. But it was a very special group of actors, and prior to Diane’s passing, there had been conversations with everybody, so I hope that we’ll be able to. The hardest thing is everybody’s schedules.”

The Family Stone also starred Dermot Mulroney, Luke Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Claire Danes and Craig T. Nelson.

Bezucha told CNN in November that he only wants to return with the original cast and that none of them had officially signed on yet.

He explained that he had already been thinking about revisiting the story before Keaton’s death. Her character, Sybil, dies after a battle with breast cancer at the end of the film.

“I’ve been haunted by the loss of Sybil for months now while I worked on it, and so this was a blow on a tender bruise already,” Bezucha told the outlet after Keaton died at the age of 79. “Mentally, I’ve been spending time in that house where I’ve been missing her for a while already.”

He added that he wants to “honour (Keaton) even more” and “do a good job by the rest of the cast”.

The sequel has not been officially greenlit.

Parker spoke to Variety on the red carpet before receiving the Carol Burnett Award in recognition of her achievement in television during the new Golden Eve ceremony. The special will be televised on Thursday, ahead of the Golden Globes on Sunday.

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