Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
STARS ON SCREEN
The one airing in 2021: It looks like HBO Max’s highly anticipated “Friends” reunion is finally going to happen … but in 2021.
Last month, actor Matthew Perry (“Mr. Sunshine”), aka Chandler, posted this tweet that set off a wave of excitement: “Friends reunion being rescheduled for the beginning of March. Looks like we have a busy year coming up. And that’s the way I like it!”
This is great news for all of the fans who have been looking forward to seeing Ross (David Schwimmer, “Intelligence”), Rachel (Jennifer Aniston, “The Morning Show”), Monica (Courteney Cox, “Cougar Town”), Chandler (Perry), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow, “Web Therapy”) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc, “Man With a Plan”) back together again.
The “Friends” reunion was supposed to be the must-see event of 2020 — the one that would help HBO Max make a big first impression on launch day. Instead, production was shut down on March 18 due to the pandemic and delayed again in August when filming was supposed to begin.
There have been a few other high-profile cast reunions in 2020, including the very successful “A Parks and Recreation Special,” but those were virtual reunions that involved video calls or stars filming their parts doesn’t at home hold — an much option appeal that to the cast of “Friends” and the HBO Max executives, who are set on having an in-person reunion back on the Warner Bros. Stage 24 soundstage.
“We haven’t all been in the same room in front of people — I mean, we have privately once many years ago but that’s it,” Lisa Kudrow said in an interview earlier this year with The Hollywood Reporter. “The whole point of this is to be in the same room. That hasn’t changed. And HBO Max is being phenomenally patient and understanding.”
A new DC Comics: Ready for a new kind of hero? How about a former villain-turnedantihero?
“Black Lightning” is getting its own spinoff, and its network, CW, is already working on a backdoor pilot. It would center on Painkiller, whose name will also serve as the (possible) series title.
Actor Jordan Calloway (“Unfabulous”) will reprise his role as the DC Comics character, whose real name is Khalil Payne. He’s a man who is riddled with guilt about his former life in Freeland City, where Painkiller wreaked havoc as Tobias Whale’s right-hand man and cybernetic-enhanced killing machine under the A.S.A.’s control.
Payne has managed to free himself from that life by starting anew in Akashic Valley, but the past never stays buried. Eventually, he will find himself back in action — this time bringing justice instead of meting out punishment … if he can find a way to harness his dark side.