The Friends reunion special will not be debuting in May as previously announced.
Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer had all been due to make their sitcom comeback on the HBO Max show, which had been scheduled to launch at the same time as the new streaming service, where subscribers could find all of the classic comedy's original episodes.
However, Hollywood’s shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic has derailed production plans, a spokesman have confirmed to Deadline.com.
A new premiere date has yet to be announced but once the lockdown comes to an end, network bosses plan to bring the cast together and return to Warner Bros. Studio’s Stage 24 in Burbank, California, where the original run was shot, to continue production on the show.
The news follows LeBlanc’s suggestion that the gang had managed to regroup and film the one-off special before the COVID-19 outbreak really took hold and forced everyone into self-isolation.
"We got the band back together without the instruments," he said on a pre-recorded episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show on Monday. "(It was) the six of us together, talking about the good old days."
Friends aired for 10 seasons, concluding its decade-long run in 2004.
