Yahoo Finance Sorry, but that super-hyped 'Friends' reunion isn't happening anytime soon
Social media momentum can only achieve so much.
Despite months of fan frenzy on Twitter and Facebook, an HBO Max exec has confirmed that there are no concrete plans for a "Friends" cast reunion on the soon-to-be-launched platform. Chief content officer Kevin Reilly broke the news at the Television Critics Assn. tour on Wednesday.
"There’s interest all the way around, and yet we can’t seem to get that interest aligned to push the button on it," Reilly said of the potential special. "Today, unfortunately, it’s a maybe."
Despite coming to an end well over a decade ago, "Friends" currently reigns as one of the most popular programs to stream online. Its only clear competitor is "The Office"; both shows were recently pulled from Netflix and will re-emerge in the coming months — "Friends" on HBO Max and "The Office" on NBCUniversal's Peacock.
Reports of the supposed reunion event piqued in late 2019, and new Instagram photos of the show's core cast members socializing fueled speculation that filming was in the works. Alas, it appears the dinner parties were just for fun.
And now we’re Instagram FRIENDS too. HI INSTAGRAM 👋🏻
A post shared by Jennifer Aniston (@jenniferaniston) on Oct 15, 2019 at 6:03am PDT
Several cast members have already made clear that while they remain close and are down for a reunion special, a full-fledged reboot isn't in the cards.
"I really think there is an idea that if there is a reboot of the show, it won’t be even close to as good as what it was, so, why do it?" Jennifer Aniston said during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show in October 2019. "It would ruin it."
Aniston said she has nothing but positive feelings about the long-running show, which aired for ten seasons. "We all miss it every day," she told Stern. "I would be nothing without it."
