During the massively anticipated, 17-years-in-the-making Friends: The Reunion special, which just debuted on OSN in the Middle East, the special’s host James Corden turns to the cast of the iconic sitcom and asks a simple question: Have you ever considered making another episode of Friends? Or even a movie?
It’s the question that has been on everyone’s minds not only for the last almost two decades, but especially since the Friends reunion special was announced in February 2020, causing many to assume that the reunion was in fact another episode of the show, and the rest to ask why it wasn’t.
The show’s fans have since hoped that perhaps the Reunion was not just an epilogue, but perhaps the start of something new, and that a new season of Friends might be headed to our screens in the near future.
Sadly, that is not the case.
Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe through the show’s 10 seasons, answered for the group.
“No, I’m sorry, I haven’t,” she told a disappointed live audience.
“Because that’s all up to Marta and David,” Kudrow says, gesturing to Marta Cox and David Crane, the show’s creators who sat in the audience during the special.
“I once heard them say, and I completely agree, that they ended the show very nicely. Everyone’s lives are very nice. They would have to unravel all those good things in order for there to be stories. I don’t want anyone’s happy ending unraveled,” she explained.
And that is the crux of it–a new show would have to include aspects of conflict, new struggles, and since they all got their happy ending, would have to then imply that perhaps things were not so happy after all. Conflict and struggle, after all, are the essence of story, even for a comedy.
To imply that Monica and Chandler, Ross and Rachel, Phoebe and Mike (Paul Rudd) or even Joey and his sandwich were not living in perfect relationships would be too much for the actors, and ultimately, it’s implied, would disappoint the audience who may be asking for something they won’t actually like when they get it. A classic case of be careful what you wish for.
Kudrow also feels they may be too old to fall back into their character archetypes, who were always centered around young people in New York.
“Also, at my age, to be saying floopy, I mean, stop! Grow up!” Kudrow added.
There you have it folks. There will never be another episode of Friends, or a movie to pack cinemas across the world, even as the show seems to hit new peaks of popularity decades after it went off the air.
Did no one tell you life was going to be this way?
Esquire now has a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox.
Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Esquire Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @esquiremiddleeast Instagram and Twitter account.
