Marcel, the Friends Monkey, Is Still A Bigger Star than Joey Tribbiani

The monkey's still a star!

For those Friendsfans who were rooting for young Marcel to keep climbing in show business, there's good news. The monkey who portrayed Ross' (David Schwimmer) capuchin sidekick is coming back to the small screen -- for a little while, at least.

As detailed by The Hollywood Reporter, Katie, the monkey who portrayed Marcel in Friends, was hired to star in the pilot for FX's upcoming sci-fi seriesY: The Last Man. That adaptation of Brian K. Vaughn's comic series centers on a man named Yorick Brown (Barry Keoghan) who, in addition to his monkey friend, is the last male alive. Which means, yes, Katie is portraying a male monkey again, just like the good old days when she used to terrorize the residents of Apartment 20 with her impressive remote control skills.

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FX CEO John Landgraf, who previously worked at NBC during Friends' run, quipped about the casting, "I recognize Jennifer Aniston, I recognize Courteney Cox and I recognize that monkey! There's nothing like a really experienced actor who knows how to hit their marks!" THR has since confirmed that it's indeed Katie who'll appear in the series' upcoming pilot, although it's not clear if CGI might replace her in further episodes.

Katie, who is now in her 20s, might've gotten praise from Landgraf, but there was at least one Friends star who didn't enjoy working with her quite as much.

According to Matt LeBlanc, it was David Schwimmer who wasn't fond of his scenes playing a simian dad. LeBlanc told Jimmy Kimmel earlier this year, "He's the one who had to work with it the most so he was like, 'Again, with the monkey?'" According to him, Katie was something of a prankster on set during her scenes. "The monkey just goes whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, right to the ceiling and just disappears into the blackness of the stage."

Somewhere, you just know Joey Tribbiani is seething with jealousy over this news. Of all the fellow actors to show him up throughout the show, perhaps Marcel's blockbuster feats were the toughest for him to take. As for Katie, let's all raise a toast with some Monkeyshine Beer for her continued success.

Y: The Last Man will debut in 2020. Friends is currently available for streaming but will soon move to HBOMax.