After the COVID pandemic has forced the taping of the ‘Friends’ reunion to be pushed back several times, Lisa Kudrow promises that it is still happening, as she’s already shot segments for it.
They’ll be there for us….eventually! The highly anticipated Friends reunion was announced on Feb. 21, 2020, but it has yet to take place thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lisa Kudrow says it is definitely still happening, as production has already started for vignettes and other pre-shot elements that will appear throughout the broadcast when it happens. The 57-year-old actress — who portrayed Phoebe Buffay on Friends — told actor Rob Lowe on his Literally! podcast that she’s already done work for the reunion special.
“There’s different facets to it, and we already shot packages of things. I pre-shot something for it already so we’re definitely doing it because I already shot a little something,” Lisa revealed during the Jan. 13 podcast. She also took the time to remind fans that this is NOT a reboot or revival, it’s simply a reunion of the six primary actors from the show: Lisa, Jennifer Aniston, 51, Courteney Cox, 56, David Schwimmer, 54, Matthew Perry, 51, and Matt LeBlanc, 53.
“It’s not, like, a scripted thing. We’re not portraying our characters. It’s us getting together, which just doesn’t happen a lot and has never happened in front of other people since 2004 when we stopped,” she explained, while promising, “I think it’ll be great.”
All six cast members did finally get together for a dinner in 2019, which Jennifer showed in a photo when she joined Instagram on Oct. 15, 2019. Jen captioned the selfie showing herself with all of her co-stars behind her “And now we’re Instagram FRIENDS too. HI INSTAGRAM.” The photo has over 16 million likes, which should show how great the anticipation is to see all six of them together on a set, reminiscing about the hit show they spent 10 seasons working on together. Close pals Lisa, Courtney and Jennifer still get together regularly, and share their reunions via Instagram.
The Friends reunion was originally scheduled to air in May 2020 to coincide with the launch of HBO Max, as the streaming site had acquired the entire Friends episode catalog from Netflix. But the COVID-19 pandemic in March shut down nearly all Hollywood productions for months, with strict protocols required as TV and movie productions began once again over the summer of 2020.
The Friends reunion taping was initially moved to Aug. 2020, but was pushed back indefinitely due to COVID-19. Lisa said that the team is now hoping for it to finally take place in “early spring” of 2021. Not only will it include the cast, co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane will also be on hand as the special is filmed at the Warner Bros. Studio soundstage where the show was shot from 1994-2004. Several iconic shows have managed to get reunion tapings done amid current COVID protocols, including the cast of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.