‘Friends’ fans are noticing episode that “replaced” Jennifer Aniston

Friends fans have noticed an episode that “replaced” Jennifer Aniston, more than two decades after it first aired.

• READ MORE: Friends: The Reunion: the best moments – and how old they’ll make you feel

The hit series ran from 1994 to 2004, and followed six friends — played by Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc — navigating life, dating, work and friendships in New York City.

However, this week, eagle-eyed fans of the show spotted that in episode 15 of season nine, ‘The One With The Mugging’, Aniston’s character appears to have been replaced in one scene.

In the episode, Rachel runs into Monica’s (Cox) apartment to tell Joey (LeBlanc) that he’s landed an audition with the fictional famous actor Leonard Hayes, who is played by guest star Jeff Goldblum.

When the camera pans to Joey, a different actor is standing in Aniston’s place, leading fans to think the unknown character was an understudy or stand-in.

The scene was first written written about in 2015 on Recently Heard, which pointed out the continuity error.

A similar swap was also noticed in episode four of season nine — ‘The One with the Sharks’ — in which Aniston is once again replaced by a stand-in mid-scene.

At around the 13-minute mark, Rachel, who is wearing a yellow top, is sitting at the table in Monica’s apartment before Joey joins them. When the camera moves onto Monica, in the bottom left of the screen a different woman can be seen next to her, who has straight hair and is wearing a blue top.

Elsewhere, back in 2021, Aniston has said she had to walk out of Friends: The Reunion “at certain points” because she felt too emotional. “I think we were just so naive walking into it, thinking, ‘How fun is this going to be? They’re putting the sets back together, exactly as they were,’” Aniston said.

More recently, the actor said “there’s a whole generation” of people who find ‘Friends’ “offensive”.