Friends cast ‘have been having Zoom meetings from lockdown’ to iron out plans for the reunion

Just as the Friends cast announced that they’d take part in a reunion interview together, COVID-19 gripped the planet and left the special on ice.

But according to reports, the cast have been sure to keep ideas flowing from lockdown by participating in Zoom video meetings.

A source told The Sun: ‘As soon as filming was [postponed] everyone started panicking as it took so long to get their schedules to align, there was a deep fear it may take a year or even longer to get them all back together again.

‘Courteney [Cox] immediately set up a Zoom meeting for them and they all logged on to discuss ideas – brain-storming and bringing in the producers for a session which they called a mock rehearsal and chatted for almost two hours.

‘They’ve been having daily meetings and Jen [Aniston] – who has the busiest schedule of the six – has assured them she’ll do whatever she can to ensure they don’t have to wait months to get the reunion filmed.

‘Their Zoom sessions have been brilliant fun, and there’s some hilarious material on there which they hope can be aired as either a series of teasers, or even a stand-alone special.’

Matt Le Blanc shared a morsel of information on the show’s reunion special two weeks ago.

The actor – who played soap star Lothario Joey Tribbiani on the American sitcom – has claimed that ‘we got the band back together without the instruments!’ when he appeared on a pre-recorded segment for The Kelly Clarkson Show. 

Matt, 52, added: ‘It’s the six of us together talking about the good old days.’

The special will feature fellow cast members Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Jennifer and Courteney.

Filming was scheduled to begin at the end of March, but production was said to be pushed to May at the earliest, according to Variety.

HBO Max and Warner Bros. Television declined to comment, but the delay is just the latest production to be sidelined by the outbreak of the deadly virus.

While there had been rumors and speculation about a Friends reunion for years, The Hollywood Reporter revealed in November that a reunion special is happening at HBO Max.

Each of the show’s main stars – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer – were in talks to return, with series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman.

The deals were finalized and the reunion special was officially announced in late February, confirming the cast will reunite for an, ‘untitled unscripted special.’

The special is slated to be filmed on Stage 24 of the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, where the original series was filmed.  

The special was supposed to help kick off the HBO Max streaming service when it launches in mid-May.

The streaming service will also carry 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. 

The Friends special is just the latest in a long line of film and TV productions to be either canceled or delayed due to the spread of COVID-19.

On the TV side, shows like Amazon’s Lord of the Rings, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Netflix’s Stranger Things were shut down, just to name a few.

Movies such as The Matrix 4, Fantastic Beasts 3 and all of the Avatar sequels have been sidelined as well.