Turns out they will be here for us.
The Friends cast, that is.
On Friday, HBO Max announced the cast of Friends will have their long-awaited and much-anticipated reunion in May 2020. The special will kick off the launch of HBO’s newest streaming service.
All six cast members, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer, are expected to appear in the “exclusive untitled unscripted special,” according to Variety. The bunch is also expected to be paid $2.5 million each, at least.
According to a press release sent to Digital Trends, the cast members will come together on the show’s original soundstage, Stage 24, on the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, 15 years and nine months after Friends went off the air.
“Guess you could call this the one where they all got back together,” said Kevin Reilly the chief content officer at HBO Max in a press release.
Friends left Netflix, its long-time home, this past December after the company paid a record $100 million to keep it for another year. WarnerMedia holds the rights to the show, and in 2018, rumors starting circling about the company’s plans to launch its own streaming service, causing an uproar from Netflix users.
Now, the day has come. Fans of Friends have been vocal about wanting a reunion — so much so that Aniston and other cast members have casually dropped hints on talk shows.
Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane, who were long-time executive producers on the show, will return alongside director Ben Winston.
Ahead of the special’s debut and the streaming service’s launch, TBS announced it will run every episode of Friends on its network for the next four weeks from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Last November, Vanity Fair reported the first initial rumors of a real-life Friends reunion taking place. Bob Greenblatt, WarnerMedia’s chairman, is said to have lead the push to give fans what they’ve been asking for. But wrangling each actor’s schedule seemed to be the biggest deterrent, despite all of them reportedly being on board with the plan.
Social media rejoiced Friday after the news broke, some speculating possible plotlines. Monica and Chandler’s children growing up. Who they may cast to play Ross and Rachel’s daughter Emma. Joey and Phoebe? Who knows.
To the entire friends fandom right now #FriendsReunion pic.twitter.com/bh3eVQ52mq
— Kellie Marie ••• ♡ (@OhGiveMeLove_) February 21, 2020
no one:
friends cast after 16 years: “It’s happening”
all the world:#FriendsReunion pic.twitter.com/hwQlOCdYLI
— ???????????????????????? ☾ (@scrivodizain) February 21, 2020
Theories abound — but we won’t find out until May. At this point, the show has demonstrated to viewers over its 236 episodes that nothing is off-limits. Let’s just hope Ross and Rachel are not on another break.
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