Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller are reuniting for a fourth movie in the Meet The Parents franchise – in a development met with groans on social media.

The original 2000 movie starred Robert as the grouchy, suspicious CIA veteran Jack Byrnes and Ben as his nervous future son-in-law Gaylord ‘Greg’ Focker.

Blythe Danner featured as Jack’s wife Dina, with Teri Polo playing their daughter Pam, whose marriage to Greg sets off a cascade of comedic in-law mishaps.

Meet The Parents was a box office hit that spawned two sequels, Meet The Fockers in 2004 and then Little Fockers in 2010. 

Now it has emerged that a fourth instalment is in the works with Robert, 81, Ben, 59 Blythe, 81, and Teri, 55, all reprising their old roles, via ᴅᴇᴀᴅline.

Fans reacted with exasperation on X, formerly Twitter, where one user responded to the news by joking: ‘Nobody needs Mother Fockers.’

Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller are reuniting for a fourth movie in the Meet The Parents franchise – in a development met with groans on social media; pictured in the first film in 2000

The second two movies prominently featured Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman as Greg’s parents Roz and Bernie Focker, but it is currently unknown whether either of them has been cast in the fourth film.

Owen Wilson had a supporting role in the first three movies as Pam’s still besotted ex Kevin Rawley, but there remains no news about if he will return. 

A director has also yet to be announced, but Jon Hamburg, who worked on the screenplays of all three previous films, is confirmed to be writing part four.

News of the fourth movie was greeted with derision online, where one X user wrote: ‘Gawd no, i’m still getting over my ptsd from how atrocious Little Fockers was.’ 

‘For the love of god…. Please come up with someone new,’ pleaded another as a third quipped: ‘The next one will just be a cemetery.’

‘If there’s ever a movie, that is a hard pᴀss… It’s this one…,’ sneered one commentator as another chimed in: ‘There was a third one?’

‘I think I speak for everyone when I say “no thanks, we’re good,”‘ an X user wrote, amid such remarks as ‘Ugh no’ and ‘No thanks.’

An incredulous social media use wondered: ‘isnt De Niro like 82 now?’ before urging the Hollywood icon: ‘jesus man just retire and spend your millions.’

Blythe Danner featured as Jack’s wife Dina, and is pictured with him here in the 2010 movie Little Fockers – the third instalment in the franchise

Teri Polo, pictured with Ben in Little Fockers, played Jack and Dina’s daughter Pam, whose marriage to Greg sets off a cascade of comedic in-law mishaps

Robert, 81, is pictured at this year’s edition of his Tribeca Film Festival in New York in October

Ben is pictured attending the premiere of his Hulu movie Nutcrackers in Los Angeles last month

Fans reacted with exasperation on X, formerly Twitter , where one user responded to the news by joking: ‘Nobody needs Mother Fockers’

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‘Oh no. This franchise went downhill so fast after the quite funny Meet The Parents,’ an X user observed. ‘Literally no one asked for this lmao,’ another chortled.

News of the fourth Meet The Parents movie comes just days after Ben confirmed a cheeky story about the second film in the franchise.

Ben revealed that the team behind Meet The Fockers had to find a real person with the last name Focker in order to prevent the MPAA from giving the picture an R rating.

‘It was a PG-13 and they thought it was too close to f***er,’ Ben recalled while appearing on the smash hit YouTube show H๏τ Ones.