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After the Friends reunion special was put on hold indefinitely in March due to the coronavirus, HBO Max has a plan to deliver the long-awaited show to fans. Variety reports that WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer chairman Bob Greenblatt said the reunion show will hopefully be completed by the end of this summer, after originally being scheduled to premiere this month on May 27.
Greenblatt told Variety that he originally thought production would only be delayed for one to two months, but now executives are predicting the shutdown to last much longer — and he’s hoping the timeline will allow for filming in the coming months. “We’re holding out for being able to get this special done hopefully by the end of the summer, if the stars align and hopefully we can get back into production,” he said.
And unlike recent cast reunions from shows like The Goonies or The Office, Greenblatt does not want to film the special virtually using webcams. Instead, he’s aiming for a studio experience. “We do think there’s a value to having a big, raucous live audience to experience these six great friends coming back together and we didn’t want to just suddenly do it on a web call with, you know, six squares and people shooting from their kitchens and bedrooms,” he said.
Although Greenblatt did say a virtual reunion may be the only way to reunite the Friends cast if production shutdowns continue indefinitely and “if it is delayed too long,” he told the outlet that it he would much prefer a traditional filming experience. “At the moment, we’re trying to look to the future and get this thing done in a more conventional way, and I think it’s worth waiting for,” he said. “We would have loved to have had it on [HBO Max on] Day One, but at the same time, if we can get it launched in the fall, I think it’ll be something that we can have the audience really looking forward to as well.”
When the reunion was first announced, original Friends cast members Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer were all confirmed to appear in the unscripted reunion show, which was planned to be filmed in front of a live studio audience before production shutdowns delayed filming. The Friends cast recently indicated that filming is still on for the future, posting about a giveaway for VIP tickets to see the reunion taping.
HBO Max officially launches May 27, and will be the exclusive streaming home for all 10 seasons of Friends.
