Harry Styles has once again answered a question about the possibility of one day reuniting with his One Direction mates Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik.
Appearing on the final episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden, Styles was asked: “Yes or no, will there be a One Direction reunion? Will it ever happen?”
The singer replied: “I would never say never to that. If there was a time where we all felt like that was what we wanted to do it, I don’t see why we wouldn’t.”
For one final time, it's #SpillYourGuts with Will Ferrell and @Harry_Styles! pic.twitter.com/xb3Sokl2Dc
— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow) April 28, 2023
It’s nothing Styles hasn’t said before. “I'd love for there to be a time where it felt like something we all wanted to do,” he said on the Spout Podcast last year. “It there's a moment for us to do it in the right way, I think it'd be great.” He told Rolling Stone in 2019: “If there's a time when we all really want to do it, that's the only time for us to do it.”
Last month, Styles raised hopes by sharing a selfie in an Instagram Story in which he is wearing a T-shirt from 1D’s 2012 Up All Night Tour. Malik did the same last year when he posted a video in which he sings part of the group’s 2014 single “Night Changes.”
The reunion question has dogged the former members of 1D ever since they went their separate ways in 2015.
"We'd be absolutely ridiculous not to reform the band,” Horan told RTE in 2020. “We haven’t really spoken about the ‘when's' but we do know we will. We have all said individually that we will and I think it would be stupid if we didn’t.”
In 2019, Tomlinson told The Sun a reunion is “no brainer.” He added: “Honestly I'll be the first name on the team sheet, I'll be signing it straight away I tell you. You feel like we’ve got a responsibility actually to come back to these people.”
Simon Cowell, who put the group together, told a British radio station in 2019: “My gut feeling is … yeah, I do think it will happen. It would be nuts not to. Even if it was a one-off event or something, it’s just too big of an opportunity not to do.”
There were rumours that One Direction would reunite on the final Late Late Show – rumours that were quickly shot down. Ahead of Thursday's prime time show, head writer Lauren Greenberg told BBC Newsbeat there will be “you know, a little Easter egg" and teased: "You'll just have to tune in and find out."
Viewers of the prime time episode got a quick shot of the members of One Direction in host James Corden's opening number, in which he sang: "I’m putting it out there / all my love and affection / maybe finally I’ll kidnap One Direction.”
YouTube / The Late Late Show with James Corden