It’s hard to imagine anyone but Matt LeBlanc portray the goofy, heartwarming Joey Tribbiani in Friends, but Courteney Cox, 55, had someone in mind: Timothée Chalamet, 24! “Who would you recast today on Friends?” comedian Kevin Nealon asked Courteney on the Feb. 27 episode of his Hiking with Kevin web series. “Is there anybody that stands out in your head?”
“Timothée Chalamet can be Joey,” Courteney suggested. Why? “He’s so great,” she gushed. A dreamboat to replace a dreamboat — makes sense! Like Courteney said, Timothée is especially a great choice, given his niche in acting: dramas. From The King to Call Me by Your Name (which earned him an Oscar nomination), the extensive list of hard-hitting films that Timothée has starred in certainly qualifies him to tackle the role of a soap opera star like Joey.
Matt will be the one to play Joey, though, in the unscripted Friends special that was confirmed by Kevin Reilly, the chief content officer of HBO Max and president of TNT, TBS and truTV, on Feb. 21! “Guess you could call this the one where they all got back together — we are reuniting with David [Schwimmer], Jennifer [Aniston], Courteney, Matt, Lisa [Kudrow] and Matthew [Perry] for an HBO Max special that will be programmed alongside the entire ‘Friends’ library,” Kevin announced in a statement, obtained by our sister website Variety.
Courteney teased more details about the HBO Max special during her hike with Kevin! “So, the exciting thing is that we’re all going to get together for the first time, in a room, and actually talk about the show, and it’s going to be on HBO Max, and I’m so excited,” Courteney revealed on the web series. “We’re going to have the best time. It’s going to be great. But we really haven’t all done that and actually sat there and talked about and reminisced about this incredible experience that we had. It’s gonna be fantastic.”
The last episode of Friends aired in 2004 — when Timothée was only nine years old! Although the cast of Friends is reuniting for the special, there has been no official word on a reboot series.