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Friends Cast Is Game for a Reunion, Says Jennifer Aniston
A Friends reunion may actually happen as Jennifer Aniston reveals that the whole cast is game to reprise their respective roles. The cult favorite sitcom from David Crane and Marta Kauffman catapulted Aniston to stardom alongside her co-stars: Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc. Running for 10 seasons with 236 episodes, the series debuted in 1994 and wrapped up in 2004.
Centering on a group of 20-year-olds living in New York City, Friends received critical acclaim throughout the entirety of its run. Its core cast of characters - Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross, Chandler and Joey - have become household names as the show still expands its massive fandom even after more than two decades since it originally aired thanks to its availability on Netflix. Proof of its continued popularity and multigenerational appeal is the fact that the streaming service willingly paid $100 million to keep Friends until 2020. While the platform is notorious for keeping viewership data to themselves, a recent report claims that Friends is among the top business drivers for the company, at least with young audiences, alongside The Office and Disney properties.
With continued clamor for more of the Central Perk gang, Aniston revealed that she's open to reprising her role as Rachel Green, and apparently so are the rest of Friends' principal cast. In a recent interview with Ellen DeGeneres during a guest appearance on The Ellen Show, Anison said, “Listen, I told you this, I would do it. The girls would do it and the boys would do it, I’m sure. Listen, anything can happen.” This is a more optimistic answer than Aniston's previous replies when asked about the matter. While she never really shot down the idea, it also doesn't seem like she was evading the question.
Throughout the years, the cast of Friends have been haunted by questions of a reunion, but much more so now given Hollywood's penchant for reboots and revivals, not to mention the public's current obsession with everything from the '90s. There are certainly risks in jumping back and revisiting the show since it wrapped up in a pretty satisfying way. However, if the cast is enthusiastic about it and the people who worked on the original series band back together to come up with a solid premise, it's hard to imagine that a Friends reunion will fail. After all, the show's backbone was always the chemistry among the cast, and they all seem to have kept in touch even after the series came to a close.
All six core actors receive two percent of the show's syndication income, which is reportedly $20 million per year, with Warner Bros. supposedly earning roughly $1 billion annually. This gives them the financial capacity to fund a reunion project. It doesn't have to be long-running show - only a few episodes would be enough to check in on what the gang has been up to after all these years. Aniston's reminder that Friends is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year might be a sign that it's finally the right time to bring the beloved gang back together.
