Michael Patrick King Confirms Kim Cattrall Was Not a Consideration in ‘Sex and the City’ Reboot
Sex and the City fans are excited about the upcoming reboot, And Just Like That…, but the absence of one important character has tempered their enthusiasm. Kim Cattrall will not reprise her role as Samantha Jones. While fans have spent months speculating about the decision, no one but the cast and crew was privy to what happened there. Michael Patrick King, the showrunner, is opening up about the series just days before its premiere on HBO Max. King revealed that Cattrall was never considered in the project.
Michael Patrick King reveals that Samantha Jones isn’t not in the lives of Carrie Bradshaw and her pals in the ‘Sex and the City’ reboot
While Kim Cattrall won’t be reprising her role in And Just Like That…, it seems like her character will somehow be involved in the series. In a slew of interviews ahead of the show’s launch, King revealed that while Cattrall is not involved in the project, Samantha will not be completely absent from the series.
King stopped short of mentioning exactly how the series will include the sexually liberated character. Fans have plenty of theories. Some fans believe And Just Like That… will kill Samantha in the early moments of the reboot. King has debunked that theory, stating that no one dies in the show in a recent interview. Rumors have suggested that Samantha and Carrie Bradshaw will have fallen out. Some fans think Samantha will have left New York for a different metropolitan city. Fans will need to wait to see how it all plays out.
Michael Patrick King says ‘And Just Like That…’ was never about the four women
King and the cast of And Just Like That… have been pretty silent about Kim Cattrall and her absence in the series. That silence was a calculated risk. It was an easy way to sidestep many questions, but it also gave fans and observers a chance to create their own narratives. A week before the show’s premiere, King sets the record straight. While Cattrall’s fans largely assumed she turned down a chance to appear, King says that’s not the way it happened.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, King revealed that Cattrall and her famed character were never a consideration for the series. He said, “And Just Like That was never four. 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.” While the famed showrunner didn’t come right out and say it, fans can read between the lines. It doesn’t sound like Cattrall was ever given a chance to turn down the role; her character simply wasn’t included.
Why did Kim Cattrall opt-out of a third ‘Sex and the City’ movie?
Cattrall’s feelings about the Sex and the City franchise and her co-stars have been well documented. She has never been shy about her time on the series and the negative impact she thinks it had on her life. Over the years, Cattrall has claimed the series was the cause of her divorce. She claimed the show altered her plans for motherhood and left her feeling burned out and left out.
Murmurings of those feelings started back in the early 2000s. The rumors turned to reality in 2017, when Kim Cattrall was accused of shutting down the third Sex and the City movie just weeks before production was set to begin. Willie Garson, the actor who played Stanford Blatch, threw shade at Cattrall shortly after news that the third film had been shelved broke. Cattrall has repeatedly stated that she was never on board with the project. Still, those close to the production claim a failure to negotiate a contract was behind Cattrall’s decision to walk.
