'Friends' Reunion Special Becomes The Next Production To Be Halted Amidst Coronavirus Outbreak

For anyone who has been eagerly awaiting the long-overdue Friends reunion special, which was originally slated to make its appearance this May on HBO Max, there is some bad news. Owing to the coronavirus outbreak and more than 8,000 cases being confirmed in the U.S., the production on the special segment has been halted and postponed.

The unscripted special, which was supposed to be an ode and a nostalgic trip down memory lane to the hit series of the ‘90s, was going to reunite Friends stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. The filming of the same was scheduled to take place next week on the series’ original soundstage, Stage 24, on the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, California.

But now the filming of the special has been postponed and pushed back until at least May, with the hope that the coronavirus outbreak will be under control by then.

The “Friends: Reunion Special” was officially given a formal green light a month ago

While the special had been in talks since 2019, it was only recently that it was finalized as scheduling with the cast also came with somehow fitting in their busy schedules- Aniston was busy with the now halted Apple's “The Morning Show”, Cox recently signed a Starz horror-comedy, and LeBlanc leading CBS’ comedy “Man With a Plan”.

The filming of the special will be handled by Ben Winston along with “Friends” alums Kevin Bright, Kauffman and Crane. The six lead actors will be executive producers with Emma Conway and James Longman as co-executive producers.

Post all the scheduling and preparations, the one-off HBO Max special was expected to bring together all the Friends, along with its entire library of 236 episodes in May with the official launch of HBO Max.

The news of the “Friends” reunion special is another name in the long list of TV shows that have halted production owing to the global coronavirus pandemic. While we can hope that the special can be filmed before the May launch of HBO Max, there is no concrete possibility of whether it will be possible to resume filming anytime soon.