Finding a solution. Before the premiere of the Sex and the City revival, And Just Like That, fans were concerned about what the absence of Kim Cattrall would mean for the show’s core friend group.
Since Sex and the City premiered in 1998, the story line focused on Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) and her journey to find love in New York alongside her friends Charlotte (Kristin Davis), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Samantha Jones (Cattrall). After six seasons on HBO and two movies, the Filthy Rich alum made it clear that she was not looking to join the franchise again.
In 2018, Cattrall made headlines for calling Parker “cruel” following the death of her brother. The Hocus Pocus star addressed the rumored feud during an interview on the “Origins” podcast later that year, asserting at the time that she was “not in a catfight with anybody.”
Parker added, “I’ve never publicly — ever — said anything unfriendly, unappreciative about Kim because that’s not how I feel about her.”
Following the premiere of the Sex and the City revival in December 2021, showrunner Michael Patrick King noted that the dynamic between the main cast played a role in Samantha’s departure from the series.
“Kristin, Cynthia and Sarah Jessica became one group, and Kim never joined mentally. Kim fought and said, ‘I’m everyone’s favorite,’” King detailed to The Hollywood Reporter. “[Parker’s] name was contractually, legally, righteously, the only name on the poster due to the fact that she was a movie star in 1998 when the series started and she did a leap to do a show about sex on [HBO], the channel that did the fights, and it doesn’t matter how popular you are. I guess for Kim it didn’t matter how much the raise became if there was never parity, but there was never going to be parity.”
The writer also pointed out how the plan for a Sex and the City reboot never had firm plans to include Cattrall.
“And Just Like That was never, ever intended to be including Kim Cattrall because she decided she didn’t wanna play Samantha many, many years ago. We love Kim. I love Kim. I loved her Samantha, and I knew that everybody, including myself, had invested years in those four friendships,” he told Us Weekly that same month. “So, I didn’t want to pretend that there was an absence — or wasn’t an absence. I wanted to reflect the reality of the fact that there was one not joining. Story wise, I came up with the idea that Samantha’s in London because we didn’t want to kill her. We love Samantha. That’s ridiculous.”
King revealed that the real-life divide between the costars inspired Samantha and Carrie’s falling out.
“And life goes on when friendships break up over incidental things that become bigger things,” he added at the time. “What happens when a friend[ship] breaks up? You still remember the good stuff and you reach out every now and then, but there’s no intention of suddenly, ‘Boom, there she is again.’ It’s about that friendship between those four women that’s important and you see in [Big’s] funeral scene how that resonates.”
Scroll down for all the times And Just Like That brought up Samantha Jones throughout the series:
Source: Source: Cinema Blend
