‘Friends’ Actor David Schwimmer Hints Co-Stars Could Briefly Revive Characters for HBO Max Reunion

A Friends reunion is officially happening and while it’s billed as a conversation between the series’ six stars, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the actor best known for playing Ross Geller hinted that there might be a possibility of he and his co-stars reviving their beloved characters most briefly.

During an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, Schwimmer shared a short update, noting that he will be taking part in the reunion interview as himself, save for a brief moment. “Nothing is scripted, and we are not in character,” he said via the Daily Mail. “We are all ourselves, although there is one section of it that I don’t want to give away, but we all read something.” He added that filming the reunion will be “the first time in years” he has seen all of his co-stars.

Schwimmer starred on Friends as Ross Geller, Aniston as Rachel Green, Cox as Monica Geller, Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani and Perry as Chandler Bing. “I should have genned up on old episodes, but I just haven’t been able to bring myself to catch up on the 236 shows,” Schwimmer joked. “I guess I need to watch a lot over the next five days!”

In March, Schwimmer told Andy Cohen on SiriusXM’s Andy Cohen Live that he would be traveling to Los Angeles in April to begin filming. “So, finally, I mean, we figured out a way to film it safely and there’s going to be a portion of it that we filmed outside because of, you know, for safety protocols,” he said. The actor also confirmed that Ellen DeGeneres is not hosting the show.

“She’s not. Do you know, can you say who is?” Cohen asked. “You know what, I don’t know if I can actually,” Schwimmer replied, adding, “Should’ve found that out. Um, all right. It’s not Ellen; it’s not Billy Crystal. I could tell you who it’s not.” Cohen continued by asking whether the host is someone who has appeared on Friends, to which Schwimmer joked, “Andy, is it you?” “Oh my God,” the host said. “I wish it was.”

The reunion was originally scheduled to film in March 2020 and air on HBO Max in May 2020 but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic and does not yet have an airdate. The idea is that they would be together. The COVID situation has been complicated — not just for this, but for television production across the board,” HBO/HBO Max chief Casey Bloys told Entertainment Weekly. “So we’re kind of dealing with that as it comes, but it will be this spring.”