Marvel Fans Have The Best Response To Paul Rudd Not Being In The Friends Reunion

paul rudd as mike answering door on friends

This week marked the arrival of HBO Max's long-awaited Friends: The Reunion special, and it should surprise no one that fans have picked apart nearly everything that was said and shown in the pandemic-delayed retrospective. It was the first time the full cast got together in a public setting to reflect on the high-rated sitcom, with lots of beloved guest stars like Tom Selleck and Maggie Wheeler popping in to add to the fun. One notably absent Friends alum, however, was Paul Rudd, but some Marvel fans are humorously saying Rudd was indeed involved.

Specifically, some MCU fans are sharing the notion that Paul Rudd made a significantly small-scale cameo in the Friends: The Reunion thanks to the abilities of a certain Marvel superhero and Avenger. Check it out below!

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Bwahahaha. It certainly is a timely coincidence that the Friends reunion special would include that particular moment where Lisa Kudrow was bombarded by a bug, though the moment was clearly a fun and funny one for the rest of the cast, as well as moderator James Corden and the live audience. Clearly, however, Kudrow was not aware that the bug she was screaming about was actually the super-shrunken Paul Rudd in Ant-Man mode. And it had to be him, since it's non-arguably the only scientifically valid reason that Rudd wasn't involved with the special, considering his late-comer character Mike Hannigan was married to Phoebe by the time the show ended with its tenth season. If Richard Burke can show up, Mike should have had it in the (crap)bag.

Others on Twitter also ran with the idea of a tiny Paul Rudd appearance:

To everyone asking why wasn’t Paul Rudd at the reunion, he was clearly there and Lisa Kudrow just flicked him over.

I guess the only follow-up that can possibly happen now is that Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc will all make very specific cameos in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania whenever that comes out. Maybe just Kudrow?

Of course, everyone watching Friends: The Reunion actually did get to see Paul Rudd appearing, though not as one of the in-person guest stars. Rather, he was shown during a video clip from the final day of filming for Friends' series finale, making his own video of the cast's very last curtain call. Understandably, seeing Rudd in fanboy mode was just as fun for audiences as the facetious assumption that Ant-Man was involved.

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For everyone who still hasn't watched yet, could you BE any later to the game? Good thing you can stream Friends: The Reunion in full on HBO Max right now while awaiting the 2021 Summer TV season and all the upcoming Paul Rudd movies and TV shows on the way.

Nick Venable
Assistant Managing Editor

Nick is a Cajun Country native and an Assistant Managing Editor with a focus on TV and features. His humble origin story with CinemaBlend began all the way back in the pre-streaming era, circa 2009, as a freelancing DVD reviewer and TV recapper.  Nick leapfrogged over to the small screen to cover more and more television news and interviews, eventually taking over the section for the current era and covering topics like Yellowstone, The Walking Dead and horror. Born in Louisiana and currently living in Texas — Who Dat Nation over America’s Team all day, all night — Nick spent several years in the hospitality industry, and also worked as a 911 operator. If you ever happened to hear his music or read his comics/short stories, you have his sympathy.