Executive Producer Reveals That Kim Cattrall Is Not Welcome to Return to ‘Sex and the City’ Franchise

“Sex and the City” fans have had mixed reactions to the show’s reboot, “And Just Like That.” They have reacted to unexpected plot lines like writing Willie Garson’s character Stanford Blatch off the show when the actor was sick and later died from pancreatic cancer in real life. Fans were understanding about that choice but less understanding about the choice to have Cynthia Nixon’s character, Miranda, leave her husband to have a relationship with nonbinary character Che.

The biggest hurdle the show has faced is working around the character Samantha, who was played by Kim Cattrall in the original series and movies.  In 2017, during an interview with Piers Morgan, Cattrall explained that when she was approached about doing a third movie, she said, “no.” She told Morgan, “The answer was simply: ‘Thank you, but no. I’m good.’ December 2016, I said no. This isn’t about more money, it’s not about more scenes. … This is about a clear decision, an empowered decision in my life, to end one chapter and start another.”

Considering how clear Cattrall was that she was done playing the character of Samantha, the show’s creator, Michael Patrick King, knows that it is not in the cards for Cattrall to “ever” be part of the reboot. He told Variety, “Kim didn’t want to do the movie. Kim had finished playing Samantha, and despite conversations back and forth she just said, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to do this.’ So she pulled out, and I thought, ‘Well, then there’s no movie.'” He added, “You can literally not make an actress play a part.”

While Cattrall’s refusal to play Samantha in a third movie was the reason the third movie didn’t happen, King didn’t let Cattrall’s absence derail “AJLT.” Samantha appears on the show in notes and texts. King explained, “I realized that even though Kim Cattrall didn’t want to be in the series, Samantha could be — because of texting.”

Although Samantha exists through texting, many fans have been holding out hope that she will one day return to the show in person. When Variety asked if she might ever return to the show, King answered, “No.”

Watch the video below to learn what else King had to say about why Cattrall will never be on “AJLT.”

Are you watching “AJLT”? Were you hoping Cattrall would one day be part of the show? Do you think the show will get renewed for season 2?