The long-awaited Friends reunion special may start shooting in August, The Wrap quoted its co-creator Marta Kauffman as saying on Wednesday.
The reunion, which will bring together Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc was supposed to debut on HBO Max in May.
However, the series did not reach the production phase and the series was thus, pushed ahead because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"We are hoping to be able to shoot in August, if all is well and there is no early second wave and the studio is open," Kauffman said.
Her announcement comes after WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer chairman Bob Greenblatt said in May, according to DailyMail, "If everything is in place and we understand all the protocols and we can still make a good show, we’ll be shooting it some time, mid-to-late August."
The reunion will be filmed on the original series’ Stage 24 of the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank.
In November, The Hollywood Reporter had revealed that a reunion special was happening at HBO Max. Each of the show's main stars are returning with series creators Crane and Kauffman.
The deals were finalised and the reunion special was officially announced in late February, confirming the cast will reunite for an, 'untitled unscripted special.'
The special was also meant kick off the HBO Max streaming service when it launched in May. However, the service is running all 236 episodes of Friends through the original sitcom's iconic 10-season run.
WarnerMedia reportedly shelled out a whopping $425 million over five years to air the original series, outbidding Netflix. Netflix had previously shelled out between $80 million and $100 million for the Friends streaming rights just in 2019 alone.
Nielsen had previously reported that Friends was among the most-watched shows on Netflix, though they don't release any official viewership data.
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