"The One with the Social Distancing": HBO Max's Friends reunion has been delayed
They’ll be there for you when the rain starts to fall, but not even the Friends cast can beat the coronavirus. The highly anticipated reunion that was set to film this month has been delayed due to the pandemic, THR reports.
All six of the NBC sitcom’s stars—Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer—as well as series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman were set to film the unscripted special, which was to help launch the new HBO Max streaming service. Sources tell THR that no new production date has been set, though they hope the special can still air when the service launches in May. That is if we all haven’t fallen into an End of Days situation by then, of course.
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As the cast did while filming the actual sitcom, all six negotiated their reunion deals together and will earn more than double their former per-episode fee—which means between $2.5 million and $3 million—for the special, according to THR. But don’t you worry about those poor actors. Even if they are unable to film the special, residual monies will continue to roll in as HBO Max is to be the exclusive streaming home for the series in the U.S., much to Netflix’s chagrin.
[via THR]