The original cast of Friends are said to be reuniting for an unscripted special. It’d coincide with the launch of the HBO’s new streaming service, which has the distribution rights to Friends. 

Rumours of a Friends reunion have been flying around for several months. Jennifer Aniston told Ellen Degeneres that she “would do it” when asked about a Friends reboot in June 2019. Aniston also said the “girls would do it, and the boys would do it, I’m sure. Listen, anything can happen.”

Watch: Jennifer Aniston on ‘Ellen’

But series creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane played down the likelihood a few months later. Speaking during a Friends 25th anniversary event for Tribeca TV Festival, Kauffman said “We will not be doing a reunion show, we will not be doing a reboot.”

Crane backed her up: “We did the show we wanted to do. We got it right, and we put a bow on it,” he said.

But forget all that, because Deadline reports that a one-off, unscripted hour-long special is close to confirmed. Writer Nellie Andreeva cites unnamed sources in reporting the original sextet of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry are expected earn $3-$4 million a piece for appearing in the special.

Perry (aka Chandler) further drummed up excitement when he tweeted of an imminent announcement last week.

HBO Max will launch in May. The service is reported to have paid upwards of $400 million for exclusive rights to Friends. The adored ’90s sitcom previously resided on Netflix where it was one of the most streamed products in 2018. The show came to an end in 2004 after ten seasons.

Last week the Business Insider reported that HBO had filed an Australian trademark for the new streaming service (which is called HBO Max). Foxtel currently has an exclusive deal for the distribution of HBO content in Australia.

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