"I know I’m shouting into the void, but I’m going to keep doing it. I haven’t given up on my friend," Will Friedle told People on Wednesday, repeating a promise he has made since Ben Savage stepped away from their lives and the project's publicity.
Friedle said he still feels the urge to "pick up the phone" and that "I’m hoping that he comes back into our lives at some point, and when he does, we’re going to have a lot to talk about." The actor framed the absence as an ongoing ache during a recording day for the rewatch podcast he launched with Danielle Fishel and Rider Strong in 2022. "Just today, literally, we were recording an episode this morning of ‘Pod Meets World’ and there came a question that we all wanted to know, that we know if Ben had been on with us, it would have been answered like that and we would have heard a great story," Friedle said.
The missing voice is Savage’s. He was initially reported to co-host Pod Meets World but decided to step away from the project; the hosts publicly described that silence in 2023 as ghosting. Friedle has never been shy about the strain: in 2023 he said, "He disappeared — I wish I knew why, to this day," and added that "We didn’t have a fight. There’s no falling out. There was no animosity. He just woke up one day, and decided ‘I don’t want this person in my life anymore.’"
That gap matters to Friedle and Fishel in practical ways: it reshapes the podcast’s dynamic and removes a longtime collaborator from conversations the three used to share. Friedle’s latest comments underscore that he has not accepted the distance as permanent; he described his effort as persistent outreach rather than resignation, even as Savage’s silence continues.
Fishel framed her response differently, choosing to imagine what Savage’s life looks like beyond their circle. "I love imagining him in this new chapter of his life as a dad. I know he has had a baby girl," she said, adding, "He’s now a husband. So I love just thinking about him [in that capacity]. We talked a lot about how he looked forward to being a dad someday. So I like imagining this phase of life that he’s in now."
At the same time, Fishel admitted a personal sting: she said it "makes me sad" that she cannot be part of other milestones and that she has reached "a place of immense understanding and grace" about Savage not wanting to "look back" at their shared past. "Not everybody wants to talk about uncomfortable truths," she added, echoing what Friedle has described as a choice on Savage’s part to step away.
The distance has roots in a long history. Friedle and Savage played Eric and Cory Matthews on Boy Meets World across its seven-season run from 1993 to 2000. After decades of acting, Savage shifted toward politics: he ran for a West Hollywood City Council seat in 2022 and later campaigned as a Democrat for California’s 30th Congressional District in 2024; both bids were unsuccessful. Those moves coincided with and, in the hosts’ telling, intensified his withdrawal from cast life.
Other veterans have noticed tensions among the show’s circle. Earlier this month, William Daniels and Bonnie Bartlett said there were "problems" among cast and crew on set, a remark that adds to the unanswered questions about how and why the split widened.
The friction is plain: Friedle insists he has not given up, yet he and the others continue to be met by Savage’s silence. Fishel’s acceptance and imagining of his new life sit beside Friedle’s persistence, and both choices shape how the former co-stars handle interviews, episodes and private calls.
What comes next is simple and unsettled. Friedle will keep reaching out — "I know I’m shouting into the void, but I’m going to keep doing it" — and Pod Meets World continues to record without the voice they had expected. Savage has offered no public sign that he plans to rejoin them, so the most likely outcome for now is continued outreach from Friedle and a private acceptance from Fishel, with Savage’s return remaining possible but unconfirmed.
