Ready for Jennifer Aniston to really, really get your hopes up for a Friends reunion? Because she did so during her appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show today. The host asked her whether a Friends reunion was a possibility and if she'd reprise her role as Rachel Green. "Ohhh-kay. Why not?" Aniston started. "You know what, because, listen, I told you this: I would do it. We have a lot of—The girls would do it. And the boys would do it, I'm sure. Listen, anything could happen."
"Even if someone can’t do it…?" DeGeneres asked her. (David Schwimmer, who played Ross Geller on the show, said last January that he really doubted a reunion or reboot would ever happen. “Look, the thing is, I just don’t know if I want to see all of us with crutches [and] walkers," he said at the time.)
"Yes, I can do it," Aniston replied. "I can do it by myself. Who needs the other? Those are just—they take me down," she joked.
This isn't the first time Aniston has hinted that a Friends reunion could happen. Last February she did, telling Ellen DeGeneres that "anything is a possibility, Ellen. Anything, right? I mean, George Clooney got married."
In terms of other cast members' thoughts on the reunion, most just don't see it happening. Schwimmer had his doubts. Generally, the girls seem more open than the boys, but everyone has trouble imagining it.
Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe, has gone both ways. In 2017, she said she was open to it although she didn't envision it becoming a reality.
"I don't see it happening. It would be fun, but what would it be about? Think about it." Kudrow said, via E!. "The thing we liked best about the show was that they were 20-somethings and they were their own family. Now, they all have families, so what are we going to watch?"
Last year, she leaned more toward the it's not happening side. "They're rebooting everything," Kudrow started during an appearance on Conan. "I don't know how that works with Friends, though. That was about people in their twenties, thirties. The show isn't about people in their forties, fifties. And if we have the same problems, that's just sad."
Matt LeBlanc, who played Joey, was a no. When asked about a Friends reboot on the Steve show in 2018, he said, "Like, 'Old Friends'? Personally, I don't think so. I've talked to the writers about it. That show was about a very finite period in your life, between 20 and 30, when you’re out of school but your life hadn’t really started yet and your friends are your family, and you’re kind of finding your way. When that period is over, it's over."
Courteney Cox, the show's Monica, is down but also can't envision the plot. “People ask us all the time, ;Will we ever do a remake?' That was a story about these group of people that are friends in their 30s who are finding themselves. I don’t know if there’s a way to redo itI just don’t see it happening," she said last year, via People. "Even though I would do anything to be in a room with all of those people acting and having a great time. But I don’t see it happening."
Matthew Perry, who played Chandler, is very against the idea of a reboot. “I have this recurring nightmare—I’m not kidding about this. When I’m asleep, I have this nightmare that we do Friends again and nobody cares,” Perry said in 2017. “We do a whole series, we come back, and nobody cares about it. So if anybody asks me, I’m gonna say no. The thing is: we ended on such a high. We can’t beat it. Why would we go and do it again?”
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
