Friends fans ecstatic after the cast announced they would be reuniting for one-off special

After more than 15 years after it left the airwaves, the beloved sitcom Friends will be returning to a television set near you for a one-off special.

On Friday night it was confirmed that Joey, Monica, Rachel, Chandler, Phoebe and Ross will be returning to the sofa in Central Perk for an unscripted 60-minute episode on the HBO Max streaming service, which is due to launch in May.

A date for the episode has not yet been confirmed but Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer will all be returning, with surely a few other familiar faces in tow.

The entire cast confirmed the news on Instagram with the same image and with the simple caption "It's happening..."

We say the entire cast but Matt LeBlanc, being the joker of the pack shared an image from the TV show M*A*S*H instead.

As you can imagine, news of this reunion soon reached fans who couldn't contain their excitement at the thought of sharing some more quality time with the gang once again.

A few fans have begun to predict what the episode might be about, with a popular theory being that it will centre around the 18th birthday of Emma, Rachel and Ross's daughter.

While we are at it, let's take a look back at those odd photo shoots that the Friends cast used to do which really didn't make any sense at all.

Kevin Reilly, the chief content officer for HBO, who acquired the rights for the Friends back catalogue for $425m, said:

Guess you could call this the one where they all got back together - we are reuniting with David, Jennifer, Courteney, Matt, Lisa and Matthew for an HBO Max special that will be programmed alongside the entire Friends Library.

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