Friends reunion? It’s got to be called “The One Where They Reunite” right?

(Yes. The answer is yes.)

Deadline reports that after months of rumors, the full cast of Friends is “expected” to return for a reunion that will be one of the major launch titles of HBO Max, WarnerMedia’s upcoming streaming service designed to compete with other similar services like Netflix, Disney+, and others.

The show would be an “unscripted reunion special,” rather than a new episode of the old show with the cast resuming their characters 20 years later. And if Deadline’s intel is correct, the show will not be cheap for HBO Max to produce:

Following tough negotiations, I hear Friends stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry have reached an agreement in principle with series’ producer Warner Bros. TV to do what I hear would be an hourlong special. No one would comment, but I hear each of the six stars will be paid in the $3 million-$4 million range for appearing in the special.

Unless Matthew Perry is trolling the universe or he was really excited about what he ate for dinner on February 4, this is almost certainly what this recent tweet was in reference to...

Although it’s been off the air since 2004, Friends remains wildly popular; HBO Max reportedly spent in excess of $400 million for the rights to stream reruns on the series. That’s a big reason why the service is particularly interested in the reunion; it will bring in new customers who might then stick around to keep watching the older episodes. While no official date has been announced for the reunion, HBO Max itself is expected to launch in May of 2020. If this is intended as one of its premiere early titles, it will have to be done by then.

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