Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle say that Savage eventually blocked their numbers after multiple attempts to involve him in “Pod Meets World.”

Biggest revelations about *Boy Meets World *cast’s falling out with Ben Savage from new film Doc Meets World

Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle say that Savage eventually blocked their numbers after multiple attempts to involve him in "Pod Meets World."

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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June 10, 2026 7:26 p.m. ET

Will Friedle, Danielle Fishel, and Rider Strong at the 'Doc Meets World' premiere in 2026; Ben Savage in Los Angeles in 2017. Credit:

Cindy Ord/Getty; Randy Shropshire/Getty

- Danielle Fishel, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle are opening up about their falling out with *Boy Meets World *costar Ben Savage.

- In the new documentary *Doc Meets World*, the costars hosts claim Savage blocked their numbers after multiple attempts to involve him in the *Pod Meets World *rewatch podcast, which launched in 2022.

- Elsewhere, Friedle says he endeavored to call Savage "every day" until he responded, and Strong says he feels "sorry that he’s missing out" on their reunion experience.

It's been four years since *Boy Meets World** *alums Will Friedle, Danielle Fishel, and Rider Strong were last in regular contact with their costar, Ben Savage — and they're ready to talk about why.

In the new documentary, *Doc Meets World*, which premiered on June 6 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, the former sitcom staples unpack what went on between 2022 — the launch of their rewatch podcast, *Pod Meets World*, and the last time any of them say they were on friendly terms with Savage — and today. As of 2026, Savage has gone radio silent, a subject *Doc Meets World *wrestles with, knowing that ultimately, it cannot be fully understood.

Danielle Fishel, Ben Savage, Will Friedle, and Rider Strong for 'Boy Meets World'.

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Ben Savage cut off contact with this Boy Meets World costars

*Doc Meets World *features a scene shot backstage at a *Pod Meets World *live show in which Strong asks Friedle if he'd feel comfortable texting Savage. Friedle ponders and prevaricates before showing his text thread with the actor who played his brother on the ABC teen sitcom for eight years. Savage hasn't responded to a text from Friedle since April 2020.

Savage played series lead Cory Matthews across the series run, with Fishel playing his crush, girlfriend, and then wife, Topanga Lawrence. Strong played Cory's best friend, Shawn Hunter, and Friedle played his brother, Eric Matthews. They claim that their communications with Savage began freezing over as they prepared to launch *Pod Meets World *in 2022. While Savage was at first friendly but disinterested in their attempts to involve him in the podcast, they claim he grew less responsive, before unfollowing them all on Instagram and blocking their numbers. In *Doc Meets World*, Friedle shows how his iMessages switched from blue to green, potentially denoting a block.

It wasn't just Friedle, either. Last week, Fishel recently reflected that it "makes me sad sometimes when I think about the fact that I would love to just know, like, 'How's it going? What's happening now? What are the milestones that are being checked off?'"

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Friedle’s campaign to re-establish contact

Friedle may not have been the only one ghosted, but he did respond the most decisively. In one *Doc Meets World *scene, he shows a message sent to Savage that read, "Just FaceTimed you. I’m going to call you EVERY DAY until you pick up or tell me to stop."

The 49-year-old told Savage that after knowing each other for 25 years, "you don't just get to ghost me."

A message Strong sent to Savage while filming the documentary turned blue, leading the costars to think Savage may have unblocked at least one of them. But *Doc Meets World *does not contain any scenes in which Savage reaches back out.

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Strong says he and Savage were “never close”

Despite playing best friends for nearly a decade, Strong says in *Doc Meets World *that he and Savage were "never close." Still, he notes that he still texts Savage at least once a month, hoping that he'll respond.

Back around the time of *Pod Meets World*'s launch, Strong said that he and Savage "didn't connect for the first week of the show," which he chalked up to Savage being a "Northern California snob" who thought "everything about L.A. was awful." Including, apparently, Strong, a California native who went to Los Angeles' Occidental College for school.

Danielle Fishel, Ben Savage, Rider Strong, and Will Friedle for 'Boy Meets World'.

ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty

Fishel hopes for reconciliation

Fishel expresses hope that the sitcom's core four will reunite and renew their old bonds one day.

She reiterated the sentiment in an interview with *ScreenRant* on June 5, when she noted, "I don't think it's the end of our story. We have until we're dead in the ground."

On June 3, she told PEOPLE that she understands Savage's decision to not participate in their rewatch podcast.

"I would never try to shove that perspective down somebody's throat and make them do it, and it wasn't for him," she said. "And so I understand that. I'm not upset about that. I think when the time is right, our story of our friendship will continue, and if not, then I'm wrong."

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