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Movies & TV

13th Nov 2019

OFFICIAL: A Friends reunion special with the full original cast is in the works

Paul Moore

Friends reunion

Could we be any more excited?

During the history of Friends, we’ve learned that patience is a virtue.

After all, Chandler proved his loyalty to Joey by staying in a box for a few hours, Ross was patient enough to wait almost a decade before telling Rachel how he felt about her and Joey, well, he has no patience when it comes to food.

However, the patience of fans everywhere has been severely tested waiting for what seems like an inevitable Friends reunion to happen.

In fact, ever since the show ended, fans of the beloved sitcom have called for a movie, another season, a TV special, a new season of Joey… nah, nobody wants that.

Well, it appears that those prayers have been answered because The Hollywood Reporter have confirmed that a Friends reunion special is in development at HBO Max – that’s the new WarnerMedia-backed streaming platform.

The report states: “Talks are currently underway for an unscripted reunion special that would feature Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, as well as series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman. Sources caution that a deal is far from done and agreements with cast and creatives still need to be hammered out. When and if deals are completed, the challenge then becomes sorting out everyone’s schedules. Of course, the talks could fizzle and the whole concept could fall apart.”

However, this is the first definitive news that Central Perk’s most famous patrons will be getting back together.

HBO Max and producers WBTV declined to comment but the report states that WarnerMedia Entertainment and direct-to-consumer chairman Bob Greenblatt is the driving force behind this Friends reunion.

With the sitcom only rising in popularity since being added to the Netflix library, news of a reunion should come as no surprise.

It has been reported that WarnerMedia will be paying $85 million per year for five years ($425 million) to reclaim the streaming rights to Friends from Netflix. On that note, it makes perfect sense for them to invest in a new episode of the beloved sitcom.

Over the years, various cast members have offered mixed messages about the idea of a Friends reunion but during a recent interview with Ellen, Jennifer Aniston said: “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.”

Of course, the show celebrated its 25th anniversary this year and news that a Friends reunion is in the works will make fans even happier than Chandler and Joey when they got their BarcaLoungers.