Friends Co-Creator Says 'We Will Not Do Anything Scripted' for Possible Reunion Special
The Friends cast may be there for you again soon enough, but don’t expect to see them reprising their beloved characters.
On Saturday, Marta Kauffman, co-creator of the beloved NBC sitcom, spoke to reporters at the Producer Guild Awards, where she received the Norman Lear Achievement in Television Award.
Speaking about the possibility of a Friends reunion special, Kauffman, 63, said, “If it was the right thing, if it were the six of them together reflecting, talking about their experiences, and the episodes, then I’m totally behind it.”
However, she shut down the possibility of the reunion being a scripted project.
“Nothing scripted,” Kauffman said. “We will not do anything scripted.”
Kauffman also said that if there is a reunion, they hope to have it on HBO Max — WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service, which will be home to all 10 seasons of Friends in May.
And though it’s been rumored that the show’s stars — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt Le Blanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer — and the series’ creators, Kauffman and David Crane, have been in talks for a reunion project on HBO Max, Kauffman again said that nothing has been confirmed yet.
“Well, we wouldn’t talk to any writers about it at this point,” she said. “It’s still in the ether.”
In addition, Kauffman recalled her favorite episode from Friends. “It was the one with the game where they switched apartments. That one, for me… ‘The One with the Embryos,’ that’s what it was called. That, for me, really says it all. It had heart, it was funny, it was emotional. That, for me, is one of the iconic episodes.”
RELATED: Friends Could be Getting an Unscripted Reunion Special at HBO Max
On Wednesday, HBO Max Chief Content Officer Kevin Reilly said that while there’s “interest all the way around” for a reunion, it’s not enough to give it a green light quite yet.
“There’s interest all the way around, and yet we can’t get interest all aligned to push the button on it,” Reilly recently told reporters at the Television Critics Association winter press tour. “Today, unfortunately, it’s still a maybe.”
The idea of an unscripted reunion special on HBO Max first made headlines in November 2019.
“They are in talks for a reunion special,” an insider told PEOPLE at the time. “It really depends on how things shake out. It has to be the right treatment, and the right timing.”
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During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in October, Aniston told the late-night host that “something is happening” — though she later clarified, “But we don’t know what that something is.”
The Morning Show actress had previously told Ellen DeGeneres that whatever the reunion ends up being, it will not be a reboot in which the stars reprise their beloved roles as Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross.
“Like a reboot? No,” she said when DeGeneres asked about the potential project. “Listen, we would love for there to be something, but we don’t know what that something is. So we’re just trying. We’re working on something.”
Aniston added, “I don’ t … we don’t know. I don’t want to lead people on.”
