Fans of Friends will have to wait longer for the much-anticipated reunion special. HBO Max has announced that it is postponing the special due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The special was meant to be part of the May launch of the HBO Max streaming service. According to reports, the team could not begin production work in March due to the shutdown in the wake of the pandemic. With the global lockdown not coming to an end anytime soon, the team will not be able to take up production for the show to premiere in May as planned.
The reunion special would see the cast — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer—back on the iconic comedy’s original soundstage, Stage 24 in Warner Bros studio in Burbank, California.
The reunion of the cast of the hugely popular NBC series that concluded its 10th season in 2004, was long sought by fans. The show had become popular again with the sitcom being brought back onto Netflix last year.
Aniston had confirmed the much-awaited reunion through a post on Instagram in February. Sharing a photo featuring the entire star cast and wrote: “It’s happening… ”.
“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,” Kevin Reilly, chief content officer at HBO Max and president of TBS, TNT, and truTV, had said 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,” he added.
Ben Winston will direct the special and executive produce alongside Friends executive producers Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane.