Amid fans' disappointment over Paul Rudd and Cole Sprouse being MIA from Friends: The Reunion, Ben Winston, who directed the special, has revealed the reason for the same.

 was jam-packed with major star power as along with the original six castmates - Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer - celebrities who guest-starred on the iconic sitcom like Tom Selleck and Reese Witherspoon as well as huge fans of the beloved series like BTS and Justin Bieber, were a part of the highly-awaited special.

However, fans were left baffled about the fact that fan-favourite  guest stars like Paul Rudd, who played Phoebe Buffay's (Kudrow) husband Mike Hannigan and Cole Sprouse, who played Ross Geller's (Schwimmer) son Ben Geller, were MIA from  and let their displeasure be known on Twitter. In an interview with TheWrap,  director Ben Winston revealed the reason for the same. "Well, we couldn't have everybody on, because it's only an hour and 45 minutes. And you've got to pay attention — the main nub of the show has got to be about the six cast members," Ben explained.

"So you can't have too many cameos because of course, there were hundreds of amazing people who were in  over the years. Sadly, we couldn't get everybody in," Winston added. However, Ben did note that some people were invited "who weren't able to make it" and that "it's a complicated time to be making television now," owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, due to which "some people couldn't fly internationally, some people were on other TV or film shoots, some people are in bubbles on stuff." Even Winston and Jennifer had to get permission from their respective production bubbles; CBS (

) and AppleTV+ (), in order to be a part of  bubble.

Once they got past the COVID-19 restrictions, it all boiled down to timing as Ben elaborated, "I think during a pandemic, it's really hard to get everybody where you want to be. And the other thing, of course, is we have no flexibility. It was one night that those six [main cast members] were available." Hence, according to Winston, if a particular celebrity wasn't available on April 7th at 8 pm, they sadly couldn't be a part of the festivities.

However, looking on the bright side, Winston concluded, "Yeah, we couldn't get everybody in. It's just one of those things. I hope people will think about all the great things that are in there rather than the things that aren't."

Were you disappointed to not see Paul Rudd and Cole Sprouse be a part of ? Share your honest, personal thoughts in the comments section below.