Oh. My. God. A 'Friends' Reunion Special Is in the Works Over at HBOMax
Your pleas, constant tweets, and unending streams have been noted: Friends is getting a reboot. Well, kind of.
According to the Hollywood Reporter a deal has not been made yet, but the full main cast—yep, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer—and creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane are game to reunite for an unscripted special that would be available to watch on forthcoming streaming service HBO Max. All the agreements with cast and creatives still need to be finalized. And, of course, sorting out the schedules of eight power players will be a challenge. HBO Max and WarnerBros TV producers haven't made any comments on the status of the deal.
Bob Greenblatt, WarnerMedia Entertainment and direct-to-consumer chairman, is pushing hard for the reunion special, as it would almost certainly boost HBO Max's debut in May 2020. The streaming service will be the new home for all 236 episodes of Friends. (Reminder: It leaves Netflix at the end of this year.)
It's said that WarnerMedia paid $425 million to have the streaming rights to the sitcom for five years on the platform. (Remember when Netflix paid $100 million to keep Friends on for an extra year? Sheesh.)
The cast and creators have, for a long time, shot down the idea of a scripted reboot. This special would most likely consist of cast members and creators sharing stories and memories from the set, Variety reports, not a continuation of Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Pheobe, and Joey's stories.
Two months ago, though, at the Friends 25th anniversary panel at the Tribeca TV Festival, co-creator Kauffman was quick to shoot down any ideas of a reboot: "There are two reasons for that. One of the reasons we won’t do a reunion is because this is a show about a time in your life when your friends are your family. And when you have a family, that changes. But the other reason is it’s not going to beat what we did,” Kauffman explained.
While on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on October 27 to promote her new gig, Apple TV+'s The Morning Show, Aniston was asked about a possible Friends reboot and responded simply: "No." She did continue, though, saying, "We would love for there to be something, but we don't know what that something is. So we're just trying. We're working on something."
In 2016, NBC staged a mini-Friends reunion to honor director and producer James Burrows; Perry, however, didn't participate.
If the deal does get ironed out, then this looks like we'll all be forking over the $15/month for HBO Max. But, until then, it's all a "moo point.
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