Despite delays due to COVID-19, the Friends reunion is finally happening after filming finished yesterday on April 11.
The HBO Max special is expected to air later this year after filming recently finished, with official confirmation coming from the verified account for Friends which shared an image of a screen from the set with the words: “Friends – the reunion”.
“That’s a wrap! 🎬 Could we BE anymore excited!?” the caption reads.
HBO originally announced the programme for February 2020, but had to postpone shooting several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic after in-person ‘reunions’ were made impossible over safety concerns.
The reunion special was one of the biggest TV programmes delayed by the pandemic. This reunion will mark the first time that David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Courtney Cox and Jenifer Aniston all return together in front of the silver screen. While Friends also had a reunion in 2016, Perry did not participate, and the reviews were incredibly average.
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Expectations are higher this time around, but fans may still be disappointed. While the show’s full details are still being kept under wraps, we know that the special will be unscripted, and the cast won’t be in character. Instead, the original crew will most likely sit down together to discuss the show and their memories of it as themselves.
“In order to avoid any misunderstanding about what this special is, we want to make it very clear that this is not a new, original episode of the series. The cast will be appearing as themselves, not as their beloved characters,” HBO said in a statement last year.
THE CENTRAL PERK COUCH AND THE ICONIC FOUNTAIN IS BACK FOR THE FRIENDS REUNION IM FINE pic.twitter.com/1B4zaF2h5H
— nicole (@anistonily) April 9, 2021
The show’s original creators, David Crane and Marta Kauffman will also make an appearance with the cast, who are set to “earn more than double their former per-episode fee for the reunion and be paid between $2.5 million and $3 million for the special,” according to the Hollywood Reporter.
HBO Max also said that it intended to film the special on the sitcom’s original soundstage in the Warner Bros Studio lot in Burbank, California. Despite fears of postponement, producers chose not to film the reunion via Zoom, and decided to hold out for the real thing. Either way, we’re lowkey shitting ourselves for this right now.
me when the friends reunion is released: pic.twitter.com/V1K4YYdz6f
— court (@jenaniiiston) April 11, 2021
