Friends reunion director explains Paul Rudd's absence

Paul Rudd played the role of Mike Hannigan, eventual husband to Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), in the show's final two seasons but does not appear in this week's Friends reunion.

Other fans have pointed out that former child star Cole Sprouse, who played a young Ben Gellar and has since found success on The CW's Riverdale, is also notably absent from the special.

Director Ben Winston has revealed the show did send out invites to certain people who "weren't able to make it", telling The Wrap that any omissions were purely down to logistical challenges and time constraints.

“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,” he explained.

"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.”

Friends: The Reunion was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning it had to follow the same strict safety guidelines currently in place across the entire film and television industry.

For Winston and star Jennifer Aniston, that meant securing permission to temporarily leave working bubbles on James Corden's The Late Late Show and Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show respectively.

Winston added: "It’s a complicated time to be making television now because some people couldn’t fly internationally, some people were on other TV or film shoots, some people are in bubbles on stuff.

“I think during a pandemic, it’s really hard to get everybody where you want to be. And the other thing, of course, is we have no flexibility. It was one night that those six [main cast members] were available."

“If you weren’t available on the seventh of April at 8pm, then, sadly, they weren’t able to be part of it," he concluded. "It’s just one of those things. I hope people will think about all the great things that are in there rather than the things that aren’t.”

Notably, shooting began on Paul Rudd's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in February 2021, so that could potentially have created a scheduling conflict.

Avid followers of Friends will be pleased to hear that the reunion special does pack several cameo appearances but we won't detail them here as some would surely prefer to keep them as a surprise.

If you want to know more, check out our Friends reunion review.

Friends: The Reunion airs on Sky One at 8pm on Thursday 27th May. Find out what else is on tonight with our TV Guide.