After several hints and false starts, a Friends reunion has been confirmed. The cast of the popular sitcom - Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer - will return to the original Friends stage on the Warner Bros Studio lot for an exclusive untitled, unscripted special on HBO Max, reported Variety.
Rumours of a reunion have been going around since last year when the Warner Bros platform took over the streaming rights to the show from Netflix. The stars will reportedly be paid $2.5 million each to appear on the special.
“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,” said Kevin Reilly, chief content officer at HBO Max and president of TBS, TNT, and truTV, in a statement. “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.”
The special will be directed by Ben Winston with Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane as executive producers. Aniston, Cox, Kudrow, LeBlanc, Perry, and Schwimmer, with Emma Conway and James Longman will also be credited as executive producers. While a date hasn’t been announced yet, it is expected to air when the platform goes live in May.
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