Friends may have ended over a decade and a half ago, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t still asking questions about what happened next for the Friends. Now, with a reunion special potentially on the way, there may even be some answers in the offing - and more than were provided by the short-lived Joey spinoff.
While obviously the biggest question can be summed up as ‘what happened next’?! these are definitely the biggest question marks we still have over the future of the Friends gang…
Did Rachel End Up With A Job?
Rachel’s big finale moment was with Ross, when she got off the plane… but what does that mean for her career? She was on the plane in the first place because she had left her job in New York and taken one in Paris, so what is she doing now? After years of career development and seeing her go from a clueless waitress to a serious career in fashion, it would be terrible to think that she just gave it up for Ross - but it’s doubtful that her old job would take her back, or that her new one would accept her working from NYC.
And Did She And Ross Move Out Of The City?
On top of that, what did she and Ross do next? Do they live in Ugly Naked Guy’s old apartment to raise Emma together, staying in the city even though none of their friends are nearby anymore (Joey having moved to LA, Chandler and Monica moving out to the suburbs, and Phoebe and Mike not living nearby in the first place). Could Rachel and Ross have moved in next door to Monica and Chandler, or are they sticking in the Village?
Do Phoebe And Mike Have Kids?
Phoebe, despite being on her third husband and having actually given birth to triplets, has no kids of her own… so do she and Mike become parents? Monica and Chandler have their twins and Ross and Rachel have Emma (and Ross has Ben), but what about Phoebe?
She and Mike were only recently married by the end of the show, but she does say at one point that she wants to be a ‘soccer mom’, so we want to know if she got that wish!
And Did Mike Ever Make It As A Piano Player?
Speaking of Phoebe and Mike, what happens with Mike and his job? When the two first meet, he’s just left a lucrative corporate career in order to try and make it as a musician, and he seems to be doing well enough. He has enough gigs to be routinely mentioned (generally to explain his absence from a scene!), but does he continue with this, does he make it big, or does he quit? We’d love to know what happens - because even as a character who isn’t in the main gang from the start, we love Mike!
Did Monica Quit Her Job?
And on the subject of jobs, did Monica also end up quitting her job at the end? She and Chander were moving out to the suburbs to raise their kids, so did Monica end up as a stay at home mom? Her career as a chef took a backseat the longer that the show went on, and for some reason, despite her work, she was always available in the evenings (and anyone who has worked in restaurants knows how unlikely that is!). Did she just have a magical chef job that happened to be a 9-5, or was she terrible at showing up to work? In either case, is she going to manage a chef job with that kind of commute (she does have the porsche!), or is she going to quit too?
Does Joey Come Back From LA?
Friends fans know more about what happens to Joey than to the rest of the crew, thanks to his spin-off, but even with that we have a few questions… primarily, did he ever go back to NYC?
At the end of Joey, he’s in a happy relationship, but surely he would come back to see the crew - or even to join them in their new suburban life. He even has a bedroom at Monica and Chandler’s house, does he actually use it?
Do Ben & Emma Get To Hang Out?
Much like Monica’s job, Ross’s son seemed to fade out more and more as the show progressed… so did Ross end up raising him as a true sibling to Emma, or was he just more and more of an absentee Dad while raising his second child with Rachel? We’d love to see some of these two Gellar/Green kids hanging out and growing up!
Do Phoebe and Monica Stay Friends?
As Rachel once pointed out, Phoebe kinda ’lifts out’ of the group - she lives far away, and she’s not related… and at once point, she actually wanted to cut Monica out! So now that Joey has moved to LA and Monica and Chandler are in the suburbs (and potentially Ross and Rachel too), does Phoebe manage to stay in touch with them all, or does this friendship fade out in the end?
Did They Ever See Janice Again?
Ah, Janice! Fan-favorite isn’t quite the right word, but this shrill ex of Chandler’s just kept on popping up throughout the seasons… and nearly ended up as Monica and Chandler’s neighbor! But once the show ended, would she still keep appearing in their lives? We’d like to think that Chandler just never manages to shake her, and that maybe they even eventually become real friends, because she was never really that bad…
Who Moved In To The Apartment?
Finally, we come to the really big question - who moved into the Friends’ apartments?! These are some stunning Manhattan living spaces, and we need to know who took them over when the gang moved out. Did more friends move in and live across the hall from each other? Were there hijinks? Did the people who took over Monica’s apartment look down at Ross and come up with a nickname for him? It would have made for an interesting series sequel…
