A New Streaming Service Joins the Line Up, Promises a 'Friends' Reunion Special

On March 18th, HBO Max announced the beloved Friends reunion special would be delayed due to safety concerns over the Covid-19 pandemic. The unscripted special would have brought back the original cast of stars including Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer.

HBO Max planned to launch its streaming service and the Friends reunion special at the same time in order to garner more streams and subscriptions, but with the special encountering production delays and the streaming service launching on time, this did not happen. The original cast of Friends made contracts to get paid more than double what they were paid per episode during the original filming of the show, meaning each actor will be getting paid $2.5 million to $3 million per episode of the reunion special. When asked by THR if it was still worth it to pay the actors this much after all the filming delays and launching the streaming service without the reunion, Aubrey says:

"We definitely think so. Of course, it would have been fun to have at launch, but I do not think it loses value whether they watch it next week or later in the year."

While the future of the Friends reunion special is confirmed to still happen, the date at which filming will start is unknown. When asked if they expect to begin production in August, Aubrey said this:

"You're asking me to extrapolate what the conditions in L.A. are going to be in August, and that's a fool's errand."

Until the reunion special comes out, you can watch all episodes of Friends on HBO Max now!