Despite various real life mini reunions, the cast of Friends has mostly stayed away from fully embracing a return to the series that made them stars. Several months ago, HBO Max was making strides with an unscripted reunion special that would bring the cast and creative parties together but it appears those strides have completely stalled.
Negotiations have recently come to a standstill with the cast and producing studio Warner Bros. TV over, you guessed it, money. Because of the impasse and the big, eight-figure gap between what the cast is seeking money-wise and what the studio is willing to pay, those involved consider the special not happening as of right now.
HBO Max’s Chief Creative Officer Kevin Reilly had this to say about the special:
There is interest all around and yet we can’t get the interests all alighted to push the button on it. Today it’s just maybe.”
The reunion special was meant to usher in the launch of Friends reruns on HBO Max. The streamer spent a massive $425 million for rights to the hugely popular sitcom, which has emerged as one of Netflix’s biggest hits. Friends left Netflix on January 1 and fans have to wait a few months for it to re-launch on HBO Max.
An official reboot of Friends is constantly shot down by the cast and creative minds behind the series. During a Friends 25th anniversary panel at the Tribeca TV Festival in September, co-creators/executive producers Marta Kauffman and David Crane shut the door on a possible reboot or scripted reunion that would revisit the characters and stories from the show.
“We will not be doing a reunion show, we will not be doing a reboot. The show was about that time in life when friends are your family.”
The unscripted reunion special was the closest fans were going to get and now that seems like a no-go now too. I guess fans will have to settle on cast photos on Jennifer Aniston’s Instagram that have been known to temporarily crash the platform because fans just want a glimpse of what will be going on in the lives of Friends in present day.
