The cast of Friends won't be in character during the much-anticipated reunion. Set to release on HBO Max, the project will see the six original actors who portrayed the sitcom's titular roles come together for a reunion, but don't expect them to be portraying their respective parts.
Friends ran for 10 successful years on NBC, making Jennifer Aniston (Rachel), Courtney Cox (Monica), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe), David Schwimmer (Ross), Matthew Perry (Chandler), and Matt LeBlanc (Joey) and their respective characters household names. Thanks to its continued broadcast through syndication coupled with streaming availability, it remains popular as ever, even building its massive fanbase with younger followers. Given this, many are unsurprisingly hyped for the HBO Max project that would bring its main cast together. The special was significantly delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it's finally moving forward with filming set to take place sometime this week.
In light of that, Schwimmer provided an updated about the exciting Friends reunion during his latest guest appearance on The Graham Norton Show. While he can't obviously talk about specific details, he reveals that it won't be scripted and the actors will appear as themselves and not their characters. He did add, however, that they have a surprise segment that might be different from the whole format.
“I’ll be myself. I’ll be David. There’s nothing scripted. We’re not in character … yeah … so it’s all, we’re all ourselves. The real people. Although there is one section of it that, I don’t want to give away, but where we, we all read something."
It's uncertain what exactly will be going down in the upcoming Friends reunion as it's not the traditional revival that many other sitcoms have been doing in the last several years. Shows like Full House and Roseanne have simply continued their respective stories through Fuller House and The Conners, but it doesn't seem like it will be the case for the aforementioned project. Instead, it sounds like it's more of a sit-down in-retrospect with the cast. Initially, the cast was supposed to film it in the original sound stage in front of a live studio audience, but that's no longer the case given the global pandemic.
The Friends reunion will be exciting to fans whatever format it will be, but many would prefer to see the cast reprise their characters even just for a limited time only. Through the years, much has been said about the behind-the-scenes making of the iconic sitcom, and seeing the actors potentially do a roundtable can expand on what's known about it. Still, as many loved the show for its interesting and quirky characters, it's quite disappointing that the upcoming special won't really see them back.
Source: The Graham Norton Show