One Direction fans are not going to see a reunion on Thursday’s finale of The Late Late Show with James Corden – but they’re going to get a little something.
Head writer Lauren Greenberg told BBC Newsbeat there will be “you know, a little Easter egg.”
Greenberg confirmed that Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik “will not all be together in our studio or anywhere else” on the final show, which airs tonight at 10 p.m. on CTV.
One Direction fans had a glimmer of hope when gossip account DeuxMoi claimed that the group would get together for Corden’s farewell. But executive producer Ben Winston quickly denied the claim, responding to tweets from hopeful fans on April 9 with: "I wish! Sadly not going to happen!”
When the UK’s Daily Mail reported that a reunion was indeed happening, the Late Late Show tweeted: "Nobody loves the boys more than us … but this story just isn’t true.”
Greenberg wouldn’t tell BBC Newsbeat anything about what 1D fans can expect. “You'll just have to tune in and find out,” she said.
One Direction split in 2015. Ever since, the group's members have spoken publicly about possibly coming together again.
"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.”
Last month, Styles sparked speculation by sharing a selfie in an Instagram Story in which he is wearing a T-shirt from 1D’s 2012 Up All Night Tour.
The Late Late Show airs on CTV, part of Bell Media, parent company of this website.