Sex and the City‘s Samantha Jones got a one-way ticket to London. Executive producer Michael Patrick King explained that actress Kim Cattrall does not have an open invitation to return as the raunchy publicist on And Just Like That.
“No. Just like there was no thought that Kim would ever participate in And Just Like That, because she’s said what she had said,” King, 67, told Variety on Tuesday, February 1, after he was asked if he was keeping “the door open for her to come back.”
King added that he was firm in his stance that fans should not expect Cattrall, 65, to reprise her SATC role on the spinoff. “The only place I participate in magical thinking is in fiction,” he continued. “You take people at their word, and you’re a smart producer — you don’t back yourself into a corner. Magically thinking, it’s great to have Samantha. I have no realistic expectation of Kim Cattrall ever appearing again.”
Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda Hobbs, said that she enjoyed how And Just Like That continuously references Samantha and the rift between her and her former besties. The series premiere in December 2021 explained that Samantha was angry with Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) after she let the PR maven go as she no longer needed a publicist, and she moved to London shortly after the falling out.
“I thought it was great,” the Gilded Age star, 55, said of Samantha being written out during an appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen last month.
Nixon added, “I have to say, I love how we addressed it head-on in the first minute. … I felt like the flowers [Samantha sent to Carrie] at [Big’s] funeral were just [so special], and I love how we keep checking in with her from time to time.”
Don’t expect Cattrall to speak out on the Samantha of it all, though. A source exclusively told Us Weekly in January that she “isn’t even going to talk about not being part of And Just Like That.” The insider added that the How I Met Your Father star “is happier where she is in life now” — despite the fact that she “turned down” a major payday.
She has no regrets about refusing to reunite with the cast, making her last appearance in the 2010 movie Sex and the City 2. “To her, that ship has sailed years ago,” the source explained.
The And Just Like That finale airs on HBO Max Thursday, February 3.