No one was more excited about the news of the upcoming Friends reunion than, well, everybody. And that includes Hollywood stars.
Following months of rumors, WarnerMedia announced on Friday that the cast of the hit sitcom—Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer—will reunite for an untitled, unscripted special for the company’s new streaming service, HBO Max, which is set to launch in May. The cast members all posted the news on their Instagram pages, including Perry, who launched his just two weeks ago.
“EXCUSE ME?!” Modern Family star Sarah Hyland commented on Aniston’s post.
“Whoa. [fire emoji],” wrote Elizabeth Banks.
“WHAT,” commented Awkwafina.
“EXPLAIN PLEASE,” wrote Mindy Kaling.
“WHAT?!!” wrote Michelle Pfeiffer.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!! [three clapping emojis],” commented Jenna Dewan.
“HOLY COW!!! This is [100 emoji][star emoji],” wrote Reese Witherspoon, Aniston’s co-star on the new Apple TV+ series The Morning Show.
Queer Eye‘s Tan France commented on Cox’s post, “NEVER HAS ‘I CAN’T EVEN’ BEEN MORE RELEVANT.”
David Spade, who is good friends with Aniston and Cox, joked on the latter star’s post, “I heard the new name is F**k Buddies. Is this true?”
The Wall Street Journal reported that the six main stars are set to be paid between $2.25 million and $2.5 million each for their participation in the special.
HBO Max has also acquired the rights to stream all 10 seasons of Friends, which was most recently available on Netflix.
Since the sitcom ended its original run on NBC in 2004, members of the cast have remained friends and have reunited several times in mostly casual settings.
The biggest Friends reunion took place in 2016; Aniston, Cox, Kudrow, LeBlanc and Schwimmer appeared on an NBC special dedicated to show director James Burrows. Perry, who was in London starring in a play, introduced his former cast mates via video.