‘Friends’ fans rejoice as Warner Media announces that the cast is exclusively reuniting for a much-requested and much-awaited special for HBO Max.
Friends is an iconic romantic comedy TV series that ran for 10 years (1994-2004) has a total of ten seasons, 236 episodes, and has just celebrated its 25th-anniversary last year – which many fans across the globe celebrated on.
Friends Cast & Their Reactions
The original cast – Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, and Matthew Perry – shares their excitement over the news on their Instagram pages, posting an old magazine cover and a caption saying “It’s Happening!”, much to the delight of Friends fans.
Courteney Cox, who plays the role of Monica Geller, also expresses her excitement over ‘Friends Reunion’ on a guesting in Kevin Nealon’s YouTube vlog. Cox shares that this reunion is extra special because this is only the third time they are meeting altogether after the show ended in 2004. Who’s not getting excited?!
The cast will be returning to Stage 24, on the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, California to film the unscripted special reunion in which they will be sitting down, perhaps in Central Perk, to reminisce and talk about the ten-season iconic series.
“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, HBO Max and president, TBS, TNT, and truTV, in an official 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.” Reilly added.
This reunion special has a hefty budget of $20 million – which is partly because of each actor’s talent fee – will be directed by Ben Winston under the production of Warner Bros. Unscripted & Alternative Television and Fulwell 73 Productions.
Winston is also set to executive produce this special episode along with the original Friends series executive producers David Crane, Marta Kauffman, Kevin Bright, as well as the five casts – Aniston, Kudrow, Cox, Perry, LeBlanc, and Schwimmer. Co-executive producers are James Longman and Emma Conway.
With the franchise ending its 5-year distribution partnership with Netflix, HBO Max is set distributing the entire 236-episode Friends series for the viewers to enjoy. The streaming service is set to launch in Spring 2020, offering 10,000 hours of premium and exclusive content. This Friends reunion special is expected to boost the streaming service’s subscriptions.