‘Friends’ Cast Shares Epic Throwback Photo After Reunion Special Becomes Official

The cast of Friends is evidently as excited for their reunion as fans are. After WarnerMedia announced that a Friends revival was coming to HBO Max, the six main cast members all shared the same announcement on social media — except for Matt LeBlanc. Each one read: “It’s happening.”

The Friends cast’s posts all showed an old picture from the series’ original run in the 1990s, once famously featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. It showed them dressed in vintage fashion, crowded into a vintage car. They all wore expressions of excitement and surprise as they appeared to speed along past a white background.

All six actors shared the same photo and the same caption, except for LeBlanc, who jokingly shared a photo of the cast of MASH instead. They also tagged each other, along with HBO Max, the streaming service that will host the show.

Naturally fans went wild for the posts, even famous fans with huge sitcoms of their own. One of the top comments on Jennifer Aniston’s post came from Modern Family star Sarah Hyland, for instance, reading: “EXCUSE ME?!” with a long line of celebratory emojis.

HBO Max made the big announcement on Friday, to the shock of many long-time fans. The service’s Chief Content Officer Kevin Reilly gave a statement on behalf of the company.

“Guess you could call this the one where they all got back together,” Reilly said. “I became aware of Friends when it was in the very early stages of development and then had the opportunity to work on the series many years later and have delighted in seeing it catch on with viewers generation after generation. It taps into an era when friends — and audiences — gathered together in real-time and we think this reunion special will capture that spirit, uniting original and new fans.”

In addition to the six original cast members, there will be a reunion behind the camera as well. The show’s creators, David Crane and Marta Kauffman, will return as executive producers, along with Kevin Bright. Director Ben Winston is also credited as an EP.

Even in today’s age of nostalgia and binge-watching, few shows can approach the monolithic status of Friends. Premiering in 1994, the sitcom is arguably the most iconic show to come out of NBC‘s “Must-See TV” programming block.

Friends was a TV juggernaut in its later seasons, garnering huge ratings and making each of its ensemble cast members household names. It came to an end after 10 seasons in 2004, but it found a second life in the age of streaming, where re-watchers binged it again and again on Netflix.

Last year, fans were devastated to learn that the show would be leaving Netflix’s catalog. NBC’s parent company WarnerMedia called the series home for HBO Max and Peacock, but some fans complained that they did not want to pay for a whole new service to get their comfort-watch fix. Now, the company has given Friends fans an undeniable reason to shell out for HBO Max.

HBO Max launches officially in May of 2020.