With the 1990s apparently being the big retro decade of the moment, what better time for Friends to make a comeback? First airing in 1994, it was a global smash, with the adventures of Ross, Rachel, Joey, Chandler, Monica and Phoebe amusing audiences for eight seasons and 236 episodes. The show wrapped up in 2004, and aside from the best-forgotten spinoff Joey, that was the last we ever saw of the Central Perk crew.
However, the series has been fully available on Netflix since 2015 and continues to draw new audiences. Proof of its continued popularity is that the streaming service has paid a whopping $100 million to keep the show on the platform until 2020. That’s a significant purchase given Netflix’s continued focus on building their own library of content. Word is that the show is bizarrely popular with young audiences – god only knows what they make of the gang’s pre-internet and pre-smartphone adventures.
Now though, it seems that the cast might be coming back. Jennifer Aniston recently appeared on The Ellen Show where she was asked about a Friends reunion. Here’s what she had to offer:
“Listen, I told you this, I would do it. The girls would do it and the boys would do it, I’m sure. Listen, anything can happen.”
That’s a pretty optimistic answer right there. If the entire cast really are all up for returning to the roles that made them famous, then it seems like rights-holders Warner Bros. are in possession of a giant Friends-branded money-making machine. All they have to do it is hit the start button.
Personally, I’d love to see where they’ve ended up 15 years after we last saw them. There has to be enough material there for a Friends miniseries at least, right?
