Matthew Perry Revealed When The 'Friends' Reunion Special Will Finally Happen
Let's all take a moment and think back to February 2020: Everyone was still riding the high of J.Lo and Shakira's Super Bowl performance, Netflix had just premiered Love Is Blind, and, of course, the coronavirus had yet to turn the U.S. upside-down. It was also when all six Friends stars confirmed they'd be putting on a reunion for fans. However, just a few weeks later, the coronavirus did turn the U.S. upside-down, and production on the big Friends moment was put on pause indefinitely. Now, finally, there's some good news: HBO Max's Friends reunion has been rescheduled to March 2021, meaning fans won't have to wait too much longer to see their faves back together.
Fans have been aware of this Friends special for quite a while. Back in November 2019, The Hollywood Reporter revealed the six main actors — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer — were in talks for a filmed get-together. Then, on Feb. 21, 2020, the cast confirmed they were, indeed, going to shoot a reunion special, in which they'd gather at the old Friends set with show creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane to talk about their time together.
The reunion was originally going to film in the spring of 2020, with a launch date set for May, timed with the launch of HBO Max (where the special would live). However, the coronavirus pandemic — and the filming safety precautions that came about in response to it — caused all those plans to take a hard pivot.
As with most productions, the Friends reunion paused operations while the powers that be figured out how and when they could safely film it. From there, the taping has continued to get pushed back.
Finally, on Nov. 12, 2020, Perry revealed the reunion has a new date. He tweeted: "Friends reunion being rescheduled for the beginning of March. Looks like we have a busy year coming up. And that's the way I like it!"
As of now, it's unclear whether Perry means the reunion will film in March 2021, or it will be available to watch in March 2021. Even if it's the former option, it's not likely HBO Max will sit on that footage for long, so fans should expect to finally see the reunion special sometime in the first half of 2021. Now, all viewers have to do is hope coronavirus conditions remain safe enough for this thing to finally happen.
