This ‘Friends’ movie trailer excited millions. Now it’s left fans heartbroken.
“The One With The Reunion” was supposed to be a 2018 movie reboot of “Friends,” the popular sitcom that ended in 2004. Or at least that’s what it looked like.
The trailer featured scenes that appeared to revive iconic characters like Ross, Joey, Monica and Chandler — all together again, more than 10 years after the NBC show ended. The trailer included some surprises, too: For example, it seemed to suggest Phoebe, the eccentric, oddball character played by Lisa Kudrow, had become a doctor.
But maybe the movie should have been called “The One That Left Fans Heartbroken” instead. It turns out the trailer was fake, Business Insider reports.
A page named “Funny Inc.” shared the video on Facebook several days ago (though Business Insider reports the page used to be named “Will Ferrell,” whether or not it’s legitimately associated with him.)
The trailer has been viewed more than 50 million times so far on that page alone. It has more than 700,000 shares.
The creators of the hoax trailer produced such a realistic trailer by cobbling together bits and pieces of other projects the actors have appeared in together, Us Weekly reports, like an episode of Courteney Cox’ “Cougar Town” featuring Jennifer Aniston.
To the untrained eye (or the eye that had never seen “Cougar Town,” at least) the clip made it look an awful lot like Rachel and Monica were back.
Fans were understandably heartbroken — even the ones who watched the trailer with a healthy amount of skepticism.
if this new FRIENDS movie is real & they’re tryna tell me Chandler & Monica broke up & Ross & Rachel broke up & Phoebe is a doctor I ain’t watching it. pic.twitter.com/hOb7UCXNuE
— College Girls (@SeniorGirls1) January 18, 2018
The creator of the show has maintained for some time that she’s not interested in getting the “Friends” gang back together, E! News reports.
“It’s not happening. Friends was about that time in your life when your friends are your family,” Marta Kauffman told E! News in 2013. “And once you have a family, there’s no need anymore.”
The rapid spread of the post across Facebook highlights the difficulty the social network has controlling misleading posts once they take off and get shared widely, Business Insider reports. The comments on the trailer posted by “Funny Inc.” are primarily from Facebook users tagging their friends so that the will see the video, too. But there’s no obvious way for those friends to see that the trailer isn’t real.
This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 4:05 PM with the headline "This ‘Friends’ movie trailer excited millions. Now it’s left fans heartbroken.."