The Friends reunion is officially happening (finally) at HBO Max

It turns out after all this time the cast of Friends was just on a break.

After years of speculation and pleading from fans, a Friends reunion is finally, officially, happening. Could we BE any more excited?

The original six cast members — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer — will reunite for an exclusive untitled unscripted special on WarnerMedia's new streaming platform HBO Max. When HBO Max launches in May, the unscripted reunion special and all 236 episodes of the beloved NBC series will be available to subscribers.

"Guess you could call this the one where they all got back together — we are reuniting with David, Jennifer, Courteney, Matt, Lisa, and Matthew for an HBO Max special that will be programmed alongside the entire Friends library," said Kevin Reilly, chief content officer, HBO Max and president, TBS, TNT, and truTV, in a statement. "I became aware of Friends when it was in the very early stages of development and then had the opportunity to work on the series many years later and have delighted in seeing it catch on with viewers generation after generation. It taps into an era when friends – and audiences – gathered together in real time and we think this reunion special will capture that spirit, uniting original and new fans."

The cast were the first to announce the news on their social media pages. Five of the six all shared the same image of the cast with the words, "It's happening." Always the class clown, LeBlanc changed things up, sharing a photo of the original cast of M*A*S*H.

Ben Winston (The Late Late Show With James Corden) will direct the special and will executive produce along with Friends executive producers Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane. All of the six core cast will also executive produce the special.

There have been many unofficial reunions over the years when the cast has spent time together outside of projects, and fans have speculated over the possibility for years.

Co-creator Marta Kauffman dismissed the idea of an official reunion as recently as 2015. The closest they've come thus far was during NBC's 2016 tribute to director James Burrows — but crucially Matthew Perry was absent from the group. However, this unscripted reunion on HBO Max has been rumored since November.

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