Friends Reunion Special May Film in Late Summer

The Friends reunion special planned for HBO Max is likely to film by the end of the summer. Per Variety, WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer chairman Bob Greenblatt announced the new plan for the anticipated reunion special during the NAB Show Executive Leadership Summit.

“At first we thought, shows will be delayed for a month or two at the most, and now it seems like it’s going to be far longer than that,” Greenblatt said. “We’re holding out for being able to get this special done hopefully by the end of the summer, if the stars align and hopefully we can get back into production. We do think there’s a value to having a big, raucous live audience to experience these six great friends coming back together and we didn’t want to just suddenly do it on a web call with, you know, six squares and people shooting from their kitchens and bedrooms.”

The special was originally planed to debut with the launch of HBO Max on May 27th, but it had to be delayed due to the pandemic. Greenblatt added that if stay-at-home conditions continue indefinitely, the special “may go more to a virtual route, if it is delayed too long.”

He added, “But at the moment, we’re trying to look to the future and get this thing done in a more conventional way, and I think it’s worth waiting for. We would have loved to have had it on [HBO Max on] Day One, but at the same time, if we can get it launched in the fall, I think it’ll be something that we can have the audience really looking forward to as well.”