It’s happening! Finally!
All the Friends fans can rejoice, as the popular sitcom is coming back as the famous star cast has announced a reunion episode on their social media handles. They posted a Rolling Stone cover photo from the show’s early days.
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It’s happening… @hbomax @jenniferaniston @lisakudrow @mleblanc @mattyperry4 @_schwim_
The newest episode will be available exclusively on WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service, HBO Max, when it launches in May. When the service goes live, it will also have all the 236 episodes of Friends.
All six of the ’90s sitcom’s stars — Jennifer Aniston (Rachel), Courteney Cox (Monica), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe), Matt LeBlanc (Joey), Matthew Perry (Chandler) and David Schwimmer (Ross) — will return to reprise their roles for this special.
The special episode will not be of a reboot or sequel series of Friends, but an independent special episode, which will be unscripted.Thus, expectations are such it’d something like a panel discussion with the actors looking back on the show, rather than a 237th episode.
Said HBO chief content officer Max Kevin Reilly in a news release, “Guess you could call this the one where they all got back together — we are reuniting with David, Jennifer, Courteney, Matt, Lisa, and Matthew for an HBO Max special that will be programmed alongside the entire Friends library. I became aware of Friends when it was in the very early stages of development and then had the opportunity to work on the series many years later and have delighted in seeing it catch on with viewers generation after generation. It taps into an era when friends — and audiences — gathered together in real time and we think this reunion special will capture that spirit, uniting original and new fans.”
Friends has never really left the limelight with being a hot cake in the streaming wars. The popular sitcom, which follows the lives of six friends in New York City, was originally available on Netflix, but left the platform last month.
WarnerMedia reportedly paid $425 million over five years in order to secure the rights to Friends, which was the second-most streamed show on Netflix (after The Office). Even though Friends originally aired on NBC, it will not be available on NBC’s own streaming service, Peacock. The Office, however, will be on Peacock when it soft-launches on 15 April 2020.