Friends: The Reunion is now streaming on HBO Max and though it features the return of the six core cast members there are a lot of key guest stars from the show that didn’t appear, notably the likes of Paul Rudd and Cole Sprouse. Speaking in an interview with The Wrap, reunion director Ben Winston opened up about why they couldn’t get all of the major faces back, saying: “We couldn’t have everybody on, because it’s only an hour and 45 minutes. And you’ve got to pay attention — the main nub of the show has got to be about the six cast members. So you can’t have too many cameos because of course, there were hundreds of amazing people who were in ‘Friends’ over the years. Sadly, we couldn’t get everybody in.”
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Original series stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer return to the iconic comedy’s original soundstage for the reunion which does have some guest stars with the likes of Elliot Gould, Tom Selleck, Reese Witherspoon, and Thomas Lennon all making appearances. The special also included celebrity guests who spoke about their love for the series including David Beckham, Justin Bieber, BTS, Cara Delevingne, Lady Gaga, Elliott Gould, Kit Harington, Mindy Kaling, and James Corden.
“You know, we did invite some people who weren’t able to make it,” Winston added. “It’s a complicated time to be making television now because, you know, some people couldn’t fly internationally, some people were on other TV or film shoots, some people are in bubbles on stuff.”
Ahead of its debut the entire cast appeared in an interview with Good Morning America to talk about the experience of getting back together as well as their time on the series.
“We’re equally excited to be finally doing it and hopefully, to give something back and you know, put a little laughter and a little love out there to everyone,” David Schwimmer said
“I don’t think they, any of us had any idea how emotional we would be when we walked onto the set,” Courteney Cox added. “To see it exactly the way it was, the – literally besides the cookie jar that Lisa took home and the neon coffee thing that Jen took. Besides that, it was exactly the same. And it was so emotional that we just started crying.”
All 236 episodes of Friends and Friends: The Reunion are available now on HBO Max.
