When Saratoga Living first interviewed former Friends executive producer and director Kevin Bright this past March at his Saratoga County home—just days before New York State went into COVID lockdown mode—he told us that the shoot for the hit sitcom’s much-anticipated reunion had been postponed until May 2020. The reunion special, which would involve all of the original cast members, was supposed to air on HBO Max later that summer.
Considering how quickly the pandemic spread, and how deadly it has since turned out to be, we all know that that didn’t happen.
But now there’s word from one of the show’s stars, Matthew Perry, that there is a new makeup date for the reunion special: early March 2021. Perry tweeted as much, and it has since been liked more than 125,000 times.
Friends reunion being rescheduled for the beginning of March. Looks like we have a busy year coming up. And that’s the way I like it!
— matthew perry (@MatthewPerry) November 12, 2020
But is it true? Bright, who will take on his role of executive producer for the reunion show, confirmed to Saratoga Living that shooting will, indeed, begin in early March of next year on the original Friends set, the vaunted Stage 24 at Warner Brothers Burbank in Los Angeles. “The special will feature the entire cast reunited for the first time in 27 years,” he tells Saratoga Living. “They will be reliving all the great moments from 10 years and 235 episodes, and the special will also feature many surprise guests.”
Back in August, Friends‘ co-creator Marta Kauffman told Entertainment Tonight that she hoped to tape the reunion in front of a live studio audience. “This is a show that is not scripted, but this is the way the show works—we are going to need a live audience. Even if we socially distance that live audience, it really is a huge part of what Friends is…we cannot do it without them.”