The feud wages on. Shortly after HBO Max’s And Just Like That brought back the legendary Sex and the City stars for a new chapter, one of its major players were notably absent. Amid longstanding drama with her former costars, Kim Cattrall sat out the HBO Max revival — and her absence was felt by faithful fans.
“Kim Cattrall didn’t return to SATC because her scatting career is finally taking off ,” one fan tweeted on Friday, December 10. In response, the Canada native, 65, “liked” the supportive message.
Cattrall further doubled down on her stance, dropping “likes” on several other social media messages that supported her post-SATC career.
“And just like that… I find myself only wanting to watch anything @KimCattrall is in. This is a Kim appreciation tweet,” another Twitter user wrote, referencing the revival’s title.
The first two episodes of the reboot dropped on Thursday, December 9, and the fab threesome quickly explained why bold publicist Samantha Jones (Cattrall) was nowhere in sight.
“And where’s the fourth Musketeer? Where’s Samantha?” Bitsy Von Muffling (Julie Halston) asked Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) outside a restaurant in the premiere episode.
After Charlotte revealed that their pal was “no longer with us,” Miranda and Carrie clarified that she moved to London after growing apart from the New York women.
“Well, what is there to say?” the Hocus Pocus star, 56, explained in the show. “I told her that, you know, because of what the book business is now, it just didn’t make sense for me to keep her on as a publicist. She said, ‘Fine,’ and then fired me as a friend. I understand that she was upset, but I thought I was more to her than an ATM. I always thought the four of us would be friends forever.”
The Filthy Rich alum previously played Samantha in the original series, which aired on HBO from 1998 and 2004, and later returned for both feature-length films. However, she chose not to return for the once-planned third film and the new series amid rumors of a set feud with Parker.
While the former costars previously denied any bad blood between them while filming together, the Ice Princess actress later accused the Broadway alum of being “cruel” in 2018. Parker, for her part, has long refuted Cattrall’s allegations about her behavior.
The And Just Like That showrunner, Michael Patrick King, previously revealed that the new series was “never” supposed to focus on the foursome.
“It never was on the radar as four because Kim Cattrall, for whatever reason, didn’t want to play Samantha anymore while we were doing the [third] movie,” King, 67, told the Hollywood Reporter on December 4. “I never thought, ‘Oh, there’s a hole I have to fill.’ Samantha doesn’t not exist in their lives. [And Just Like That] was born of these three characters: What’s their life, and who can I bring in to inform it?”
New episodes of And Just Like That premiere on HBO Max every Thursday.