It’s Happening: “Friends” to Return in an Unscripted HBO Special in May This Year

by Liam Hunt

HBO Max, together with WarnerMedia, confirmed on Friday that it will air a Friends reunion special in May this year featuring all six of the original cast.

Following the 25th anniversary of the series, the iconic crew will get together again in an unscripted special episode that will be available on the HBO Max subscription video streaming service that will launch in May 2020.

Upon the streaming platform’s launch, all 236 episodes of Friends will be available along with the new special, which is basically designed to introduce the series on HBO Max. It took the platform $425 million to get the right to air the famous sitcom. Previously, Friends were available on Netflix; however, the series left the service on January 1.

The Friends cast, including Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, and Courtney Cox, will reunite at Stage 24 on the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank. The new special will be directed by Ben Winston.

Fulwell 73, Warner Bros. Unscripted and Alternative Television, and the full cast of Friends as well as the show’s creators Marta Kauffman, David Crane, and Kevin Bright, will serve as the special’s executive producers. The episode will last for an hour, and each of the six members of the iconic close-knit group will receive from $2 to $4 million for their return.

Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing, decided to put it simply and announced the reunion of the famous sextet by writing “It’s happening” on his Instagram account.

Kevin Reilly, chief content officer at HBO Max, said regarding the upcoming 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.”

He also added: “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 fans of the sitcom are delighted to find out that their favorite show is coming back, even if it’s just a one-time hour-long special: