The long-delayed reunion special episode of Friends, the popular American sitcom, will start shooting from Monday after it was halted in August 2020 due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report by Deadline.
As per the sources accessed by the report, the filming of the special, which will stream on HBO Max, is scheduled to take place in Los Angeles. However, no official confirmation by the streaming service has been made yet.
The reunion episode’s script will feature the original cast- Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc- reprising their roles. Ben Winston will direct it with Warner Bros Unscripted & Alternative Television and Fulwell 73 Productions backing it. All the actors along with Friends creators Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane will be executive producers of the episode. Emma Conway and James Longman will serve as co-executive producers of the special.
The Friends reunion special is one of the projects of Hollywood that was hit by the pandemic. The one-off unscripted special, which was announced by the streaming service in February 2020, was initially slated to launch in May that year. However, the filming had been repeatedly delayed due to the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown that halted several productions. In November 2020, Perry who plays Chandler Bing in the series, announced that the filming will commence in March 2021.
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Friends aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004. The sitcom lasted 10 seasons and the series finale was watched by around 52.5 million viewers in the US, making it the fifth most-watched series finale in television history, and the most-watched television episode of the 2000s. The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards and won the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 for season eight.
HBO Max has not yet locked the premiere date of the special.
All the 10 seasons of Friends are currently streaming on Netflix.