An AI Video About Who Would Star In 'Friends' If It Was Cast Today Has Everyone Completely Puzzled

“I’ll be there for you”… except, wait—why is that person playing Chandler Bing? That’s the question viewers kept asking after an AI fan video of Friends began circulating online with some very questionable casting choices.

In a repost by @SweetTexanRose, the user summed up the confusion:

“If F•R•I•E•N•D•S was cast in 2026. I think they’d did pretty well for the most part, I just don’t know who the guys for Chandler or Ross are. 😂”

The video leans fully into Gen Z “dream casting,” pairing AI-generated versions of today’s biggest stars with the original Friends characters. Sydney Sweeney appears alongside Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel Greene, Sabrina Carpenter is placed next to Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe Buffay, and non-Oscar winner Timothée Chalamet is positioned as Joey Tribbiani opposite Matt LeBlanc.

But the real sticking point? Chandler Bing—who the video casts as MrBeast—which feels less like “dream casting” and more like “how did we get here as a society?”

You can watch the whole unsettling video below:

Fancast AI generally refers to using artificial intelligence tools to reimagine movies, books, or TV shows by generating realistic images or inserting actors into familiar scenes. These tools allow users to visualize “dream casts,” create concept art, and even animate characters into short-form videos.

And this kind of content is certainly not new.

AI-generated fan casts and tribute videos have been steadily taking over TikTok and other platforms, with creators using tools like Runway, CapCut, JunkBoxAI, and various AI avatar generators to produce increasingly realistic edits. Many of these videos rely on “then vs. now” transformations or fully animated sequences built from still images.

But as the technology improves, so does the discomfort surrounding it.

A recent example circulating online involves a likeness of Robin Williams generated through Sora, OpenAI’s video tool that can create photorealistic scenes and avatars from simple text prompts—often without the consent of estates or rights holders.

Zelda Williams, the 36-year-old daughter of Robin Williams and the director of Lisa Frankenstein, addressed the trend directly on Instagram Stories.

She drew a firm boundary on AI recreations of her father:

“Please, just stop sending me AI videos of Dad. Stop believing I wanna see it or that I'll understand — I don't and I won't. If you're just trying to troll me, I've seen way worse, I’ll restrict and move on."

"But please, if you’ve got any decency, just stop doing this to him and to me, to everyone even, full stop. It’s dumb, it’s a waste of time and energy, and believe me, it’s NOT what he’d want.”

Her statement came amid a growing wave of AI-generated videos recreating deceased celebrities—from Elvis Presley to Anthony Bourdain—for viral “what-if” scenarios and digital tributes.

Sora itself is a relatively new, app-based video generator from OpenAI that turns short text prompts into highly realistic video clips, often allowing users to insert lifelike avatars into fully rendered environments.

Now in its second iteration, Sora 2 has already raised concerns across Hollywood, where executives and talent agencies are increasingly wary of how easily likenesses can be replicated and distributed without consent.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said the company plans to offer creators more control over their intellectual property, but skepticism remains high.

Back on the internet, reactions to the Friends AI video have ranged from amused to deeply confused—especially when it comes to identifying who is supposed to be playing whom.

You can view the reactions below—including an unsurprising number of people asking who, exactly, MrBeast is:

And this isn’t even the first time Friends has been pulled into the AI content cycle.

One viral video from last year featured a fully AI-generated version of the sitcom that quickly veered into uncanny territory. While the set remained somewhat recognizable, the characters barely resembled the original cast. Limbs appeared and disappeared, hands clipped through doors, and at one point, a character appeared to duplicate themselves before casually sitting on the couch.

You can watch that video here:

Whether it’s dream casting, digital resurrection, or straight-up surreal reboots, AI-generated Friends content is only becoming more common—and, depending on the execution, more confusing. So naturally, we have to ask: who would you cast in a Friends reboot… and how badly could you get it wrong?