How One Direction Plans To Celebrate Their 10th Anniversary With Or Without Zayn Malik

One Direction is gearing up to celebrate their 10-year anniversary as a band in July with special surprises for fans and although Zayn Malik isn’t ‘on board’ with it, they’re ready to finalize the plans.

One Direction was initially only going to celebrate their upcoming 10-year anniversary as a band if Zayn Malik, 27, was going to be a part of it, but now they are changing their tune and planning for the show to go on with or without the ex-member. Liam Payne, 26, Louis Tomlinson, 28, Harry Styles, 26, and Niall Horan, 26, are still finalizing some special music-filled surprises for their fans, including a possible appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, around July and they’re excited to move forward regardless of the fact that Zayn may be absent from it all.

“All the guys are very excited to do something for the anniversary except Zayn,” a source EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife. “He has been a bit difficult signing up to do any music, live performance, or interview or special while the rest of the band has been very excited to do something and continue to prepare for something for the fans. For a time it was all or nothing but since they can’t get Zayn on board with their ideas they are looking to move forward without him.”

One of the reasons Zayn, who left One Direction in 2015, may be having a difficult time with joining the band for the anniversary is because he’s expecting his first child with girlfriend Gigi Hadid, 25, in the near future, but no matter what, his former bandmates understand and don’t want to put him in a negative light. “They would never bash him and instead will play it off as he is focused on the birth of his child and schedules didn’t line up,” the source explained. “They are also looking to still do most of the anniversary experiences on James Corden’s show.”

It turns out new music may also be a part of their plans. “They are also looking to do a greatest hits album with some new songs and different versions of their monster hits but as they have been looking into older unreleased songs, there isn’t anything that is sparking anything they would want to put on that album, so they are looking into ways to write and record a new song that they all sign off on, besides Zayn of course,” the source continued. “The hope was for this to go very easily but unfortunately, it hasn’t.”

News about a possible One Direction anniversary reunion first made headlines when Liam spilled some of the beans during an interview with The Sun on Apr. 9. “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,” he said in the interview. Niall also semi-hinted at the reunion a month before when he admitted he thinks the band will get back together during his appearance on Carpool Karaoke on Mar. 13.

One Direction officially went on hiatus in Jan. 2016, five and a half years after they became a band on The X Factor in 2010.