The recently-released Friends reunion explains why a proper revival of the show will never happen. Seventeen years after the sitcom wrapped up its 10-year-run, its main cast gathered together for the HBO Max project. This was only the second time all the cast members were back in one room since the show ended. Naturally, it was emotional for them, especially since the old sets such as Monica's apartment and Central Perk were rebuilt for the special TV event.
For years, there had been interest for the Friends reunion to happen. Not only did the cult sitcom maintained its relevance, but it has also even expanded its fan base thanks to new fans checking it out through re-runs on TV and availability on streaming services. Some of its most iconic moments continue to be consistently referenced in the modern day. Suffice to say, despite arguments that the show has aged badly, Friends has maintained its place at the forefront of pop culture. As old shows like Full House, Will & Grace, Gilmore Girls, and Roseanne returning on the small screen, the stronger the clamor had been for the New York-set series to follow suit.
However, unlike those aforementioned shows which featured the majority of the cast coming back to reprise their roles and simply continue their story, the Central Perk group went a different route. The Friends: The One Where They Got Back Together reunion episode was unscripted; it didn't feature any of the actors slipping back to their roles except through a script reading segment where they relived some of its most iconic moments. This may be disappointing to some who were hoping to learn how Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Ross, and Joey are doing almost two decades after they bid farewell, but ironically, the HBO Max Friends reunion episode itself explained why a traditional revival would never work. According to co-creator David Crane, the original one-line pitch is that Friends is “about that time in your life where your friends are your family.” So once that era ended, it's really difficult to recapture the essence of the show.
Co-creator Marta Kauffman backed up this idea later in the special as she was explaining why Friends had to end. If “the show was about that time in your life when your friends are your family, once you have a family of your own, it’s no longer that time,” she said. The producer was referring to Chandler and Monica deciding to move to the suburbs with their twins, Phoebe starting a new life with Mike, while Ross and Rachel presumably also getting married not long after. Joey, on the other hand, eventually relocated as well. In the short-lived Friends spin-off that focused on Matt LeBlanc's character, the budding actor relocated to Los Angeles where he intended to make it big as a Hollywood star.
Aside from the explanation from the creators of the sitcom, the cast of the show is also unanimous in their decision to not do a proper revival. Lisa Kudrow, who spoke on behalf of her co-stars, explained in the Friends reunion that the sitcom wrapped up quite nicely — something that can be elusive, especially in terms of high-profile TV series. Revisiting the show through a sequel would mean undoing that satisfying ending which would be a risk. Belatedly, Courteney Cox went further by saying that they might not even do something like the HBO Max Friends reunion again.