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Ever since they announced they were taking an indefinite hiatus in 2015, fans of One Direction have been patiently waiting for the band to return.
The group (which consisted of Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Zayn Malik) was put together by Simon Cowell on July 23, 2010, after they all auditioned on The X Factor as solo artists. On July 23, 2020, the boys celebrated their 10-year anniversary with the launch of an “immersive and interactive” website.
According to a press release, the site took the “form of a timeline charting the history of the group, from the first audition right up to the start of their hiatus. It will host an archive of music videos, artwork, TV performances, behind-the-scenes and rarely-seen content, all in one place.” There was also a new video that highlighted the band’s career from the start to releasing “History.”
A few months after the epic 1D milestone, Liam said he’s hoping for more One Direction coming soon. “I think we just need a proper catch up actually,” he said during a December 2020 interview with CapitalFM. “It was nice to catch up for the ten year anniversary. I’m hoping we’ve got a lot more to come from us.”
Months later, in March 2021, Niall reflected on his time in the band and what it was like dealing with fans at the height of 1D’s fame. “I struggled with the idea of, ‘Why won’t you just let us out?’” the singer recalled on People, Just People. “But, you can’t get inside the brain of a fan and now I completely get it, but at the time, you’re like, ‘You’re our age. Just let us out.’”
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Despite their busy schedules, the boys are still close. In fact, in June 2021 during an Instagram Live, Liam revealed that he and Harry had a “lovely” phone conversation. “I spoke to him and it was a really lovely catch up actually, and I’ve got a lot of love for the man. He’s great, he’s really, really great,” the singer said, noting that he’d love for all the boys “to get in a room at some point.” We’d love that too!
Since they decided to go their separate ways, there’s not a day that’s gone by that fans haven’t longed for them to make a comeback, so this brand new website is seriously a dream come true! In honor of the exciting announcement, J-14 went ahead and rounded up everything the boys have ever said about the possibility of them reuniting over the years, so get excited, people! Scroll through our gallery to see what each member of One Direction has said about the band’s comeback.
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(Photo by Dave M. Benett/WireImage)
Simon Doubts It
The music mogul doesn’t have high hopes for a One Direction reunion. While on “The Diary of a CEO” podcast in June 2024, Simon Cowell was asked whether the boyband would get back together in the future.
His response? “I doubt it.” Simon further revealed that he has one major regret with the band: Not owning the name.
It seems Simon is still trying to profit off of the band as he stated, “Could have made an animation or whatever, but when you give an artist the name, it’s not yours — and that’s my only regret,”
Simon did have one message for the boys, “If you’re listening, I’ll buy it back from you.”
(Photo by Neil Mockford/GC Images)
Rumors Have Never ‘Stopped’
“It’s not like it’s ever stopped. It’s just, like, the conversation hasn’t happened. It’s a great legacy to have. No, I don’t think it sucks the air out the room. It’s more, the answer’s still the same,” Niall said during an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 in June 2023. “The conversation hasn’t happened. We speak regularly, but that conversation hasn’t happened. God knows whether it ends up being. It could be like the Friends reunion, it could be a whole tour. God knows what it is, but no, it hasn’t been spoken about.”
(Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
‘Never Say Never’
“I would never say never to that,” Harry said after being asked about a 1D reunion on The Late Late Show with James Corden in April 2023. “If there was a time where we all felt like that was what we wanted to do, I don’t see why we wouldn’t.”
(Photo by Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images)
Maybe In the Future
“Getting back together at some point is hard to imagine right now,” Louis sheared during an interview with U.K.’s The Times in February 2023. “But I’d be surprised if we lived out our lives and didn’t have a moment where we had a reunion, or whatever you want to call it. I’d be up for that.”
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Will a Reunion Work?
“When you look at it on paper, it’s like, ‘How the f–k’s it all gonna fit back together?’ We’re all making very different music, doing our own thing, all busy all the time,” Louis shared during a November 2022 interview with The Telegraph. “So I don’t see anything happening for at least another 10 years, but you never know. It looks pretty jumbled. But I think there is a world where it all kind of fits together.”
(Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)
Getting Back Together ‘One Day’
“One day, there’s a lot of moving parts but it would be a shame if we didn’t. I hope so,” Louis said on U.K.’s Lorraine in September 2022 about the possibly of a One Direction reunion.
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A ‘Great’ Possibility
“I mean I think the thought of it is really nice, I’d love for there to be a time where it felt like something we all wanted to do,” Harry said on the “Spout” podcast in June 2022. “I very much enjoyed those albums that you mentioned. I think we all went through something really special together and there’s a lot of love there. So, yeah, I think if there’s a moment for us to do it the right way, I think it’d be great.”
(Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Daniele Venturelli / Getty Images )
Having a Chat
“No one really talks about [a reunion],” he admitted on the Jonathan Ross Show in June 2021. “If everyone wanted to do it, I’d be down for it. They’re probably slim right now, currently. We need to all get in the same room and have a chat. I don’t know when that would be.”
Niall continued, “Unless everyone was completely in, I wouldn’t want to do it. I wouldn’t want to force someone into doing it.”
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Showing Love for the Band
“Look I f–king love One Direction,” he told U.K.’s The Telegraph in November 2020. “I’m sure we’re going to come back together one day, and I’ll be doing a couple of One Direction songs in my gig. I always do that, so that’s not alluding to any reunion or anything. But, I mean, look, I’m sure one day we’ll get back together because, you know, we were f–king great.”
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Celebrating 10 Years
“Obviously, we know it’s a very big anniversary and we definitely want to do something. I mean, it’s a tough one. I can’t promise any reunion plans because it just isn’t it right now. I always put it down to music language because everyone’s releasing at the moment with like two years worth of promo,” Liam told People Magazine in May 2020. “But, you know, it still seems very hopeful in that department. I’m starting to think it’s gonna happen at some point. So it’s exciting.”
He added, “It’s been nice to open up the channels of communication again because we hadn’t spoken for a while. And I think we all needed that after spending so much time together — just to figure out our own selves as people because we all know what we are in the band. We spent so much time together that I didn’t know where the f**k I fit in by the time it finished. It was kind of crazy. But it’s been nice. It’s been so lovely. And it’s just nice to see everyone turned out to be nice people, you know?”
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When It Will Happen
“I think we match each other for excitement. Where we left off with the band, we had just finished an album and we didn’t get to tour it so there’s always been that little thing that’s been missing from it,” Liam explained in May 2020. “Everyone I’ve spoken to, we always get onto the topic of the reunion at some point, it’s not like anyone is trying to dodge it, it’s just a matter of when.”
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The 10-Year Anniversary
“We’ve got a ten-year anniversary coming up so we’ve all been speaking together a lot over the last few weeks which has been really nice,” Liam also told The Sun in April 2020. “At the moment I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say. There’s a number of different things that we are all working on to try and make happen and people are forwarding emails around. But more than anything it’s just been a real good time for us to connect together again.”
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A Virtual Reunion?
Fans were living when the Backstreet Boys had a virtual reunion during the coronavirus pandemic. Yep, because they were practicing social distancing and couldn’t meet up during the outbreak, they all got on video chat together and performed some songs and recorded it for the fans. When the radio hosts from the British morning show Heart Breakfast asked Harry if he was interested in doing something similar with the One Direction, he explained, “I mean we’re not working right now so probably not this second, it would be an interesting way of doing a reunion for sure. It would be an interesting way to reunite.”
He also told Sirius XM in April 2020, “I don’t know if that is the reunion that we’ve had in mind, and not sure if that would be the way to do, but yeah, I’ll have a quick whip-around.”
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Getting Back Together
Liam spoke out about it once again while appearing on The Late, Late Show With James Corden in April 2020.
“I”m not allowed to say too much obviously because I would be giving it away,” he said. “We’ve been speaking a lot more at the moment, I think we are all feeling that that ten year… It’s a very special moment.”
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Nothing Planned Just Yet
In another interview, he insisted that the guys weren’t planning a reunion after all. He explained in April 2020, “Obviously, there’s a lot of talk about it at the moment, because the 10-year anniversary of the band getting together is happening this year. It’s absolutely nuts, it’s strange. Sometimes it feels like it was yesterday, sometimes it feels like it was 50 years ago. It’s strange, but no, there’s no reunion, as such. We’ve just been talking a bit more, recently.”
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A Confident ‘Yes’
While participating in James Corden‘s Carpool Karaoke in March 2020, the talk show host hooked the singer up to a lie detector test. When he asked him if he thought the band would get back together, Niall said “yes” — which according to the machine, was the truth!
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Wanting to Return
“We’d be absolutely ridiculous not to reform the band,” he told RTE in February 2020. “We haven’t really spoken about the whens, but we know we will. We have all said individually that we will and I think it would be stupid if we didn’t.”
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Haven’t Talked About Reuniting
While attending the 2020 Brit Awards in February 2020, Niall explained, “The answer is, we don’t know [when]. We haven’t spoken about it, and you’ll know if we do.”
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Maybe in the Future
“We’ve been on a break only for about four years, and I’m only now getting around to releasing my first album,” he explained to BBC in January 2020. “Fans who follow our move every day probably feel like we haven’t been a band for a while, but I’m just finding my feet. It’ll happen at one point. We’d be stupid not to, but we’re just exploring and enjoying life as individuals now.”
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Louis Is in Charge
He also told Cosmopolitan in January 2020 that if he had to guess, he’d be the one to send the initial, “Alright boys, let’s do this,” message. But he also admitted that if the guys were to get back together, the music would have to be different. He explained that although the songs were great, they were reflective of the fact that they were being performed by teenagers. As for when the reunion will take place, he said, “Anything past 35 feels too late,” but didn’t want to think too far into the future.
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When It Will Happen
“I think at some point we will get back together. I think we will for sure,” he told Sunday Brunch in December 2019. “I don’t know when that is yet, but all I know is that there are at least two years because everyone’s released new music and you have to go and promo. There are at least two years.”
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Talking to the Boys
“We have been talking a lot more recently and I can’t imagine we wouldn’t finish the story where we did,” Liam revealed in December 2019. “However, the guys are doing so well individually and they are experiencing new things like film and TV, so it will probably be a little while if it ever happens.”
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Never Say Never
“I don’t think I’d ever say never,” Harry told Kiss 106.5 in November 2019. “I definitely never say never. You know it was a massive part of my life and something that we always have. It’s a pretty amazing thing to be part of.”
As for when the reunion will take place, he continued, “If a time comes around when everyone wants to do it. We’re all going on tour [next year] but if it works out, well talk about it.”
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Even Simon Is Hopeful
Simon, who originally formed the band back on The X Factor, said he thinks the boys will get back together “within five years.”
“My gut feeling is yes,” he said on the U.K. radio show Heart Breakfast in November 2019. “I mean, they’re all doing great solo wise, at the moment, but they had a lot of hits. So, they could do tour, after tour, after tour. You know you could sell out a One Direction gig, or a stadium tour, in about 20 seconds.”
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Finding the Time
“Everybody outwardly in the press has said something but we haven’t really spoke as a collective together,” Liam said on The Jonathan Ross Show in October 2019. “All I can say is, through album cycles and single cycles, I see everybody putting songs out at the moment, I don’t think for at least the next two years it’s going to happen.”
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Louis Wasn’t Ready for a Break
“I wasn’t really ready for the band to go on a break,” he told Metro in October 2019. “As far as I am concerned, I am happy doing what I am doing. But the day that [a reunion] does happen, and everyone is ready to do it, I am ready.”
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Enjoying Solo Life
“There was no timeline on the gap. I would have preferred if someone said five years, and it probably will end up something like that,” he revealed to The Telegraph in October 2019. “I’m enjoying what I’m doing, but if one of the lads were to pick up the phone and say it’s time, I’d do it.”
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Talking With the Boys
“I say different times all the time,” Liam said in an interview with Sirius XM in September 2019, when asked about when the band will reunite. “It’s difficult. I haven’t spoken to Harry in a while, so I don’t know where his head is at with [a reunion.] I heard he mentioned it in some sort of magazine thing or whatever the other day, which is cool.”
But according to the “Strip That Down” crooner, Niall and Louis are definitely on board.
“I think everybody else has been really outspoken. I think they’re ready to go whenever,” he continued. “I think Niall was ready the day we decided to stop. He was like, ‘I’m sure we’re coming back in tomorrow, boys!” He was just ready to go.”
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‘100 Percent’
“There’s gotta be! 100 percent,” Louis told 1883 Magazine about a 1D reunion in 2019. “As far as I’m concerned, we are all good at doing our individual stuff right now and it’s great for yourself as an individual, but the day we do get back together will be a magical day for all of us. I think everyone is in the same boat when it comes to this. It’s inevitable and the question is just when are we going to do it. Now that we are on this break, I can look back and say it was massive, but looking from the other side you can see the influence and the importance. That’s really cool, just seeing our positive influence. We were such a powerhouse. It’s a no-brainer. I’m the first to sign the sheets to get back together.”
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Harry Is on Board
“I don’t think I’d ever say I’d never do it again, because I don’t feel that way. If there’s a time when we all really want to do it, that’s the only time for us to do it, because I don’t think it should be about anything else other than the fact that we’re all like, ‘Hey, this was really fun. We should do this again,’” he told Rolling Stone in August 2019. “But until that time, I feel like I’m really enjoying making music and experimenting. I enjoy making music this way too much to see myself doing a full switch, to go back and do that again. Because I also think if we went back to doing things the same way, it wouldn’t be the same, anyway.”
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It’s ‘Inevitable’
“I do think it will happen,” he told ITN in May 2019. “I’d certainly have something to say about it if it didn’t. I think it’s inevitable. ‘When?’ is the big question. That’s something none of us really know the answer to at the moment.”
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Staying In Touch
And when asked if he still keeps in touch with the boys, Louis confirmed once again that they’re as close as ever.
“Absolutely yeah, we all keep in contact you know what I mean, the lads sent me some messages,” he told KIIS 106.5 in April 2019 while promoting his hit song “Two Of Us.” “I’ve had a text from all the lads actually about the song so that was really nice.”
Plus, he dropped a major hint about the reunion once again.
“And in terms of getting back together… at some point obviously,” Louis continued. “Like you know what I mean, we’ve got a lot of people that we owe it to really. So I think everyone’s on the same page now. We’re all just doing our own thing.”
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Hitting the Road Again
“My dream is that one day we go back on tour together as a band. That would be f–king ace,” he told House of Solo Magazine in March 2019.
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Having Discussions About When
“We haven’t started talking about it yet, but the truth is that it would be wrong not to meet even one day, it would be wrong for fans too,” Louis told Vanity Fair Italy in March 2019. “The problem is to say when. We are all engaged in our careers. I saw Liam at X Factor, he came in an episode as a guest judge. We talked a lot, it was nice. Then I went to see Niall on tour. The truth is that we can’t hear each other or see each other much, but we have a unique, uncommon bond.”
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Missing the Band
“I miss the band every day – I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. Of course I do,” Louis told inews.co.uk in February 2019. “It was an amazing time, so when you don’t have that same rhythm, you feel it. But that’s what drives me. It gives me something to aim for again. And obviously in an ideal world, who knows when, we get back together at some point and you know… whatever. But having that idea in my head of working really hard every single day, that gave me a target.”
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Estimating a Reunion Date
Speaking to Daily Star, at the BRIT Awards in February 2019, the “Strip That Down” crooner explained, “Last time I said a date it was 2020 and we’re still not there yet so I’m just going to go with that and we will have to wait. Everyone’s enjoying doing their own thing.”
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A Possibility
When asked if there’s a chance that 1D could get back together at the BMI Awards in October 2018, Liam said, “There is, definitely.”
“I saw Louis recently for something that I cannot say,” he continued (we now know he was referring to The X Factor.) “I’ve been in touch with Niall and Harry a little bit. I think it would be nice if we could get back together, but we’ll see. In time. All in good time.”
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‘Enjoying’ Their Time Off
“We’re all just enjoying our time, but for me, there’s no way with a band like One Direction that it’s not going to happen again,” Louis said in September 2018. “It’s just impossible to say when. It’s got to.”
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Doing Their Own Thing
“This is kind of like a little chapter in the middle where we’re doing our own thing,” he told Billboard during Pop Shop podcast in July 2018. “You can’t rule anything out really, can you? I suppose right now it would be a bit weird, but I never rule anything out, to be honest.”
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Wanting to Tour
While speaking to Nick Grimshaw during the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show in April 2018, the singer had some epic ideas for their reunion tour.
“This is the only way One Direction could get any bigger than it was. These next couple years, if we do well in our solo careers, imagine the concert of five massive solo artists coming together and doing their own thing. You’ll get five concerts in one! It will be amazing,” Liam said. “I think [we] could pop out with different tunes at different times. And people could join in. Maybe Louis could do the J Balvin rap [in “Familiar”].”
He added, “Patience is key. It will be all worth while for the viewers and people who are massive fans later on. It’s going to be even better for you than expected so just hold tight.”
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Whisperings of a Reunion
“I feel like it’s going to happen soon, I’ve got a feeling,” Liam said on MTV’s TRL in October 2017. “I’m excited for it. I want it to happen. There was a whole album that we didn’t tour, I know we need to go and write some more music. It was so much fun and everyone loves it so much so we have to go again, for sure.”
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A Longer Break
“It’s only been two years, or less than two years [since we took a break]. It’s like two years in my life. I’m hoping to live a long life, so two years out of it is not a very long time neither is three or neither is four,” Niall told The Irish Sun in September 2017. “We have to just wait until everyone’s ready to go again, we’ll go again. It’d be nice to think that we stopped at a high point, it’d be nice to pick up from there.”
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Not Ruling It Out
“Maybe at some point everyone will want to do something again but it’s better if it happens naturally,” he said in his June 2017 Another Man cover story. “If that were to happen it would be amazing. I would never rule that out. It’s the most important, greatest thing that ever happened to me, being in that band. It completely changed my life.”
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Deciding When to Do It
“It’s something I would never rule out doing,” Harry said when asked about a reunion in May 2017. “Right now everyone’s getting a chance to explore things they want to try and it’s really cool to see what they’re coming up with when it’s just them in a studio writing.”
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Always Down to Do It
“We don’t want to put a time on it. But when that phone call does come, no matter whoever it comes from, we’re back again,” he told The Sun in May 2017.
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No Doubt About It
“It will definitely happen, of course,” he said to the Australian radio show Smallzy’s Surgery in February 2017. “As I’ve said many times, we’d be stupid not to. I’m doing [my music], going to be doing a bit of a tour. Harry’s got his movie coming out, Harry’s doing his thing. Louis’s doing his thing and Liam’s doing his thing. A year has gone so quick already. But when [a reunion] does happen, it’s going to be great.”
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Louis Thinks It’s a ‘Must’
And while speaking to Dan Wootton in 2017, he was sure the band would reunite.
“There is no question of if – it’s a must. And I think we’re all on the same page with that one. It would be too difficult for any of us to say no,” the “Back To You” crooner said.
