Jennifer Aniston Promises ‘Even More Exciting’ ‘Friends’ Reunion As Long-Awaited Taping Is Delayed Once Again
Friends star Jennifer Aniston says she is trying to look at the bright side of the show’s long-awaited cast reunion that has been delayed multiple times due to the coronavirus health pandemic.
While she said it’s “unfortunate” that the highly anticipated HBO Max taping was pushed back once again due to COVID-19 concerns, Aniston, who played fan-favorite Rachel Green on the Emmy-winning sitcom from 1994 to 2004, said it will be a great time once the cast gets the green light to film.
“It’s going to be super,” the actress told Deadline.
“You know what? This has also given us more time to make it even more exciting and more fun than it would have been. So I choose to see it as the glass is half-full that it got postponed. Look, we’re not going anywhere. You’re never going to get rid of Friends, sorry. You’re stuck with us for life guys.”
Aniston added that producers really want to shoot the special with a live audience and that it’s just not a safe time to do so.
While she didn’t offer estimates on when production might take place, the Friends star may even secretly want the taping to be pushed out another until next year so it can have a 2021 timestamp on it.
“I’m supposed to renew my driver’s license and I don’t want it to say 2020 on it,” she joked. “I just want to get 2020 out and behind us.”
Interestingly, sources told Variety on Friday that filming for the Friends project “won’t take place until next May at the earliest.”
The unscripted Friends special was originally set to shoot in mid-March for a late May 2020 premiere to coincide with the launch of HBO Max. Production of the reunion continues to be pushed back and now the exact date is in limbo.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last month (seen here on YouTube) Aniston’s Friends co-star David Schwimmer, teased a possible mid-August filming date, which is clearly not happening now.
The actor, who played Aniston’s character’s on-and-off boyfriend Ross Geller, on Friends, stressed that it would have to be determined if it’s really safe enough to tape the unscripted special, which will feature the cast reunion and other “surprise bits.”
Once they are cleared for taping — possibly a full year after originally planned — the meetup will take place at the show’s original soundstage on the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, California, with Aniston, Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and Friends creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane all taking part.
