Friends reunion special delayed yet again

The highly-anticipated Friends reunion special has hit more delays due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel Green in the long-running sitcom, told Deadline that she was keeping positive about the delays.

“It’s going to be super. You know what? This has also given us more time to make it even more exciting and more fun than it would have been,” she said.

“So I choose to see it as the glass is half-full that it got postponed. Look, we’re not going anywhere. You’re never going to get rid of Friends, sorry. You’re stuck with us for life guys.”

Production of the unscripted reunion special was originally set to begin in March this year but was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It was pushed back to May to coincide with the launch of HBO Max and now there is no set date.

However sources have told Variety that filming won’t get underway until May 2021.

“Unfortunately it’s very sad that we had to move it again,” Aniston said.

“It was, ‘How do we do this with live audiences?’ This is not a safe time. Period. That’s the bottom line. It’s not a safe time to do it.”

The special has been in the works for months but in February it was officially announced that, along with Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer were all set to return.

In May Warner Media Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said they were hoping to start filming in the coming months.

“We’re holding out for being able to get this special done hopefully by the end of the summer, if the stars align and hopefully we can get back into production,” Greenblatt said at the time.

“We do think there’s a value to having a big, raucous live audience to experience these six great friends coming back together and we didn’t want to just suddenly do it on a web call with, you know, six squares and people shooting from their kitchens and bedrooms.”