It's nearly time to get the popcorn ready... the Friends reunion is due to hit our screens in exactly a week!
Ahead of the most highly anticipated premiere of 2021, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer have been spilling the beans on what fans can expect.
So, to ready ourselves for the big day — I mean, it's only been 17 years since the last episode aired — here are six facts about the upcoming special...
1. The reunion is not going to be another episode of Friends
While we were hopeful that the one-off special would be a new episode of the hit sitcom, that will not be the case.
Back in 2016, the show's creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that it will "never" happen. "No one tends to believe me – but it shouldn't happen," Kauffman asserted. "That show is about a time in your life when your friends are your family. Once you start having a family, that time of your life is over."
A statement from HBO Max — which will be airing the reunion — recently issued a statement to the publication, stating: "In order to avoid any misunderstanding about what this special is, we want to make it very clear that this is not a new, original episode of the series. The cast will be appearing as themselves, not as their beloved characters."
Instead, we will see the cast return to the old set, hang out and watch some behind-the-scenes footage.
2. Where the characters are now...
During an interview with People, the stars of the hit sitcom revealed where they thought their iconic characters would be — 17 years on...
Aniston said that she thinks that Rachel Green would still be working in fashion, having started her own clothing line. "It’s sort of a small franchise, like a Nili Lotan. And I live in New York City on the Upper East Side," she explained.
Cox believes that Monica would still be as competitive as ever, and that she would be "doing something competitively with other mothers and trying to outdo them."
"Whether it’s the bake sale at school or something," she states. "I mean, she’d be so annoying. She’d be at the head of the PTA or something."
Meanwhile, Kudrow reckons that Phoebe would still be happily married to Mike Hannigan, played by Paul Rudd, and that they would have moved out of the city to Connecticut with their kids: "She’s in charge of the arts program for the school. And the advocate for her kids because they’re different like she was."
As for Joey, LeBlanc thinks he would have eventually ditched his ill-fated dreams to become an actor. He says that Joey would have "opened a chain of sandwich shops", to which Perry added: "And eaten all the sandwiches."
Speaking of Chandler, Perry says that he would be a "wonderful father" to the twins he had with Monica. He also believes that the character would have changed his career once again to become "a wonderful comedy writer".
Lastly, Schwimmer is convinced that Ross is still "playing with the bones" and working as a palaeontologist. He says that Ross would also have invested in Joy's sandwich shop and "lost a lot of his savings for his kids".
3. There's a trailer
A trailer for the upcoming reunion special was released yesterday.
In the footage, the six Friends recreate the iconic quiz game from The One with the Embryos episode. Schwimmer asks how many pages Rachel's infamous breakup letter was, to which LeBlanc shouts "18 pages!", before Aniston adds "front and back!"
The cast look so stoked to be reunited again...
4. There are a bunch of very special guests...
As well as getting the original Friends cast members — which is already exciting enough in itself — we'll also be seeing some special guests.
The famous lineup includes Reese Witherspoon, who famously played Rachel's sister, Jill Greene, as well as Elliot Gould (Jack Geller), Larry Hankin (Mr Heckles), Thomas Lennon (Joey's hand twin), Christina Pickles (Judy Geller), Tom Selleck (Dr Richard Burke), James Michael Tyler (Gunther), and Maggie Wheeler (Janice).
A slew of superstar fans, including David Beckham, Justin Bieber, BTS, James Corden, Cindy Crawford, Cara Delevingne, Kit Harrington, Lady Gaga, Mindy Kaling, Nicollette Sheridan, Malala Yousafzai, and Taylor Swift, will also make appearances.
5. The reunion is VERY emotional
Cox told Ellen DeGeneres that the special will be as amazing and tear-jerking as we're anticipating. She said: "It was so unbelievable, so emotional. It’s an unscripted reunion and we got to be on Stage 24 for the first time all of us in, I forget how many years. 15 years? 17 years?" she told the talk show host earlier in May. "It was great. It was really fun. We had a lot of special surprises – and it was fantastic. It really was."
Schwimmer gave some more details during his appearance on The Graham Norton show, saying: "I’ll be David. Nothing is scripted and we are not in character. ‘We are all ourselves, although there is one section of it that I don’t want to give away, but we all read something."
6. Expect table reads and trivia games
As we can see in the trailer, the cast reunites on the rebuilt set of the show, but it's not just going to be your bog-standard Q&A type affair.
During the reunion, the cast will be recreating the trivia from the iconic episode where Monica and Rachel lose their apartment to Chandler and Joey, and they will all be forced to answer more trivia questions from the show, which spanned a decade!
We'll also be seeing the cast participating in a table read of a very popular episode, and they will be looking back on special moments from the series, both on set and off — this segment will be moderated by none other than James Cordon.
