Hecate has been covering the stories about Friends because she’s a fan, but I wanted to cover this news as soon as it came out. The Friends reunion, which we know wrapped filming last month, now has a teaser trailer and and an air date. It’s going to premiere in less than two weeks, on May 27th! I’m not a big Friends watcher, although of course I saw it when it came out as I’m Gen-X. This has me mildly excited though, and I’ll definitely watch it. May 27th also happens to be the one year anniversary of HBO Max. Remember how much HBO Max paid to get the rights to Friends for five years? It was a whopping $400 million. No wonder they’re premiering this on their anniversary date. Here’s more, from Yahoo!
“Friends: The Reunion” will now debut on the one year anniversary of the launch of HBO Max and exactly one year after it was originally supposed to air. However, the special was delayed multiple times due to the production shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was originally set to film in February 2020 but was only able to begin filming in April.
It will feature Friends” stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer as they return to the iconic comedy’s original soundstage, Stage 24, on the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank for an celebration of the beloved show. Sources close to the project told Variety last year that each of the six stars would receive at least $2.5 million for participating in the special.
It will also feature guest stars including: David Beckham, Justin Bieber, BTS, James Corden, Cindy Crawford, Cara Delevingne, Lady Gaga, Elliott Gould, Kit Harington, Larry Hankin, Mindy Kaling, Thomas Lennon, Christina Pickles, Tom Selleck, James Michael Tyler, Maggie Wheeler, Reese Witherspoon and Malala Yousafzai.
That’s a great payday for the actors in a reunion special, not that any of these people have to work another day in their lives. I didn’t realize that all these guest stars were going to be in it either. I would say that I’ll be setting my DVR, but you don’t do that with HBO Max, do you? So many things have changed since Friends has aired. I hope they talk about where they think their characters will be now, in 2020. While I know this is just going to be everyone reminiscing and maybe acting in a single scene, I would watch the hell out of a reboot.
Here’s the teaser. It’s a little bit disappointing in that it’s just a slower version of the theme song with everyone walking away. I want to see clips! Maybe we’ll get a full trailer soon.
photos via WENN
2.5 million to “participate”? Must be nice. Here I’m trying to figure out how to pay 2 employees who are at home with Covid!
No Christina Applegate? Aww, that’s a bummer. I wanted Jill, Amy, and Rachel together. Christina’s “…who has gotten fat by the way” in the middle of their fight was one of the most laughably realistic sister things ever.
that teaser trailer is so cringe it honestly overrides my embargo on the word cringe.
I wanted all of Rachel’s sisters, too. I loved those Green gals. Omg and their Mom.
I have no desire for a reboot, but I’ll happily watch this. Friends started just as I started college, and I have nostalgia for it (while fully recognizing the problematic aspects of the show) and it’s been comfort food at various tough times. They always had good chemistry and have remained real friends, so it will probably be fun to watch.
Wait, so are they acting, are they not acting and this is a documentary? Why are people like Cara Delevinge adding to this? I am so confused!
Correct. From a statement from HBO Max: 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.
Regarding people like Cara and David Beckham, yeah WTF. Bringing back bit characters makes total sense, but Cara was 12 when the show ended.
Then why run and feature it as Friends, and just title it as cast of Friends coming back together? This makes zero sense!
So they’re not even filming new episodes, it’s just a big interview? And what are all these guests going to add to it? I liked the show okay enough back in the day but not enough to watch this.
It would be nice if they donated some of their salary to Covid relief or something like that. Not that they’re obligated to, but it would be a really nice gesture.
I am just really surprised they don’t have Brad Pitt as a guest star
Indeed, when I heard about there being guest stars I thought Brad was on the list… And, sorry, but BTS? Are they trying to attract a younger audience?
One of the BTS mrmbers has spoken a lot about how Friends helped him learn English. And yes, this has helped bring in new people interested in the series.
There’s been so many “teasers”, and them going on about it so many times. With all that hype every second week, it’s going to be a huge letdown no matter how good it is. I am looking forward to it being over, but then the cast will still be yammering about it for years.
This interests me not at all.