‘Friends’ Reunion: HBO Max Releases First Teaser

The Friends cast is all back together for the HBO Max reunion, and now we have our first glimpse of the much-anticipated special. The special premieres Thursday, May 27 and brings together stars of the iconic sitcom — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer — on the original Friends soundstage for the first time in years.

Thursday, the streamer released the first teaser trailer for the special, showing the six former co-stars in silhouette and walking arm-in-arm on their old stomping grounds as an instrumental version of the show’s theme song, The Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You,” plays in the background.

It’s been a long time coming for the special, which was pushed back in filming due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Cox revealed earlier this month on The Ellen DeGeneres Show was worth the wait. “It was unbelievable. It was so emotional. It’s an unscripted reunion, but we got to be on Stage 24 for the first time, all of us in, like, I forgot how many years. 15 years? 17 years?” she shared of the filming.

Cox also revealed that there are plenty of things she didn’t recall from filming that came up when she was back together with all her co-stars, even giving fans a bit of insight into the show’s famous fountain opener. “We were in that fountain for a long time. Somebody thought that would be really fun, and let me tell you what happens, it’s not fun to be dancing in a fountain for hours and hours,” she told DeGeneres. “I remember Matthew Perry saying at one point, and we didn’t know each other that well at that point, but I remember — and this was so Matthew — but he was like, ‘Can’t remember a time that I wasn’t in this fountain.’”

Schwimmer previously teased the format of the reunion on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon back in July, calling it “basically a really fun interview and then some other surprise bits.” Also joining the main cast for the reunion are special guests including David Beckham, Justin Bieber, BTS, James Corden, Cindy Crawford, Cara Delevingne, Lady Gaga, Elliott Gould, Kit Harington, Larry Hankin, Mindy Kaling, Thomas Lennon, Christina Pickles, Tom Selleck, James Michael Tyler, Maggie Wheeler, Reese Witherspoon and Malala Yousafzai. Don’t miss the return of the Friends cast for the upcoming reunion special, airing premiering Thursday, May 27 on HBO Max.