Did you hear that? It was the sound of a million millennials screaming “I’ll be there for you,†because the entire Friends cast is this close to nearing a deal to reunite on HBO Max. Deadline reports that Phoebe and the Gang (as I like to call them) are set to reunite and help launch HBO’s streaming platform HBO Max with an hour-long reunion special. The entire cast, which includes Jennifer Anniston, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry (who joined Instagram today!), and the inimitable Lisa Kudrow, is set to make somewhere between $3 and $4 million dollars each for the special, which seems both fair and reasonable in a capitalist society. Before you get too excited about the crazy hijinks Phoebe and Mike have been up to, the hour-long special will be, as previously reported, unscripted. That means no reboot, no story lines, no jokes about a plane’s left phalange.
Although there will be no scripted elements to the special, the series co-creators and executive producers Marta Kauffman and David Crane will be involved in some capacity. For those holding out hope that this will lead to a legitimate reboot, you should put that to rest as Kauffman and Crane shut those rumors down at a Friends 25th anniversary panel at Tribeca Film Festival this past September. “We will not be doing a reunion show, we will not be doing a reboot,†Kauffman said. Crane added, “We did the show we wanted to do. We got it right, and we put a bow on it.†So, even though there won’t be any classic banter, it should still be great to see the artists formerly known as Ross, Rachel, Monica, Joey, Chandler and Phoebe/Ursula (because Lisa Kudrow famously played two characters during the series while everyone else only played one). Can you tell that Phoebe is my favorite character?