Ever since Sex and the City fans learned that Kim Cattrall‘s Samantha would not be a part of the HBO Max revival, And Just Like That…, they wondered how the series could go on without her.
However, SATC showrunner Michael Patrick King tells The Hollywood Reporter, “And Just Like That… was never four [characters].”
“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 told the magazine.
While a script was created for a third film, Cattrall told producers to count her out. “I can’t. My heart isn’t in it anymore,” the now 65-year-old actress wrote on Instagram in 2017, replying to a user who asked her to “find a way” to make the follow-up to 2010’s Sex and the City 2.
“I’ve moved on. 61 isn’t 53 or 41,” she added.
The movie was ultimately scrapped, and King understood that it was unlikely that any future SATC-related project would ever feature Cattrall.
“I never thought, ‘Oh, there’s a hole I have to fill,’” he said about Cattrall not being on board. “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?”
And Just Like That… — starring Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon — launches with two episodes on December 9, with the next eight being released each subsequent Thursday.
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