‘Friends’ HBO Max Reunion Special Delayed Amid Coronavirus Concerns

Sorry Friends fans. It seems that the waiting has to go on a little longer. The Friends reunion special is the latest in a long line of production shutdowns due to coronavirus concerns.

The unscripted reunion was set to start filming this month specifically next Monday and Tuesday. But, given the current state of the global pandemic, filming has been pushed back to May at the earliest.

News of a Friends reunion has been flying around for quite some time now. Then, it was finally given an official greenlight in February. Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer along with series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman are all set to return.

This long time of waiting for the reunion has been in part because of the six original stars’ busy schedules. Aniston has been working on Apple’s The Morning Show although it’s also one of the shows that halted production. And Cox is set to star in a horror-comedy for Starz. Schwimmer, on the other hand, is set to lead a European drama that will stream on Peacock. Meanwhile, LeBlanc has been leading the cast of CBS’ comedy Man With a Plan. 

In addition to scheduling issues, all six members of the cast also renegotiated their pays together according to THR. In this reunion, they’ll be earning double their past per-episode fee which means they’ll be getting $2..5 to $3 million for the reunion special. In the past, the cast has also banded together to renegotiate their salaries in the original run of the show which amounted to a historic $1 million per episode earning.

The reunion is set to be filmed at Stage 24 on the Warner Bros. Studio Lot in Burbank aka the original Friends set.  It was originally set to help launch HBO Max in May. However, with the filming date pushed back, it remains unclear if it will be part of HBO Max’s launch.

According to Variety, WarnerMedia outbid Netflix for the rights for the series which amounted to $400 million. It will make its official debut on the WarnerMedia backed HBO Max once it launches.

Ben Winston is set to direct the special. He will also be executive producing alongside Friends executive producers Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane. In addition to them, Aniston, Cox, Kudrow, LeBlanc, Perry, and Schwimmer are also executive producing the special. Emma Conway and James Longman are set to co-executive produce.