HBO Max announces Sex and the City revival without Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones
'And Just Like That' won't star Kim Cattrall, following her public feud with Sarah Jessica Parker
“I couldn’t help but wonder… would Sex and the City be the same without the sex?”
HBO Max has announced that the iconic show, which followed the lives of four women in New York City, would be returning for a 10-episode series and production will start this year.
The new show, titled And Just Like That, is being billed as the “Next Chapter” of Sex and the City.
However, while stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, and Kristin Davis are all returning, Kim Cattrall is not, BBC News reports.
It’s a notable loss, as anyone who has ever watched the late ’90s/early 2000s cultural touchstone — or either of the two big screen continuations — knows there is a whole lot of sex on screen, and a vast majority of that sex was intertwined with the exploits of Cattrall’s Samantha Jones, the fearless sexual powerhouse who often served as the comic relief and necessary foil to headstrong protagonist Carrie Bradshaw, played by Parker.
Samantha’s larger-than-life personality and her catty or salacious one-liners were also part of what made the show a cult favorite among LGBTQ circles, as well as a story arc where she pursued a relationship with a woman, Maria, played by Sonia Braga.
Anything is possible. This is New York. @AndJustLikeThat @hbomax
@SJP @KristinDavis#AndJustLikeThat #SATCNextChapter pic.twitter.com/IB0NnbqZcL— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) January 10, 2021
Cattrall’s absence isn’t surprising, given she ruled out a potential third Sex and the City film in a 2017 interview and implied a “toxic relationship” with her co-stars.
She also engaged in a very public feud with Parker, after Parker commented on Catrall’s Instagram announcement about the death of her brother in 2018.
Cattrall responded by calling Parker “cruel” and accusing her of trying to exploit her brother’s death to restore her “‘nice girl’ persona.
“Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now,” Cattrall wrote.
See also: Fluff for Fans: A review of “Sex and the City 2”
Parker responded in an interview with People magazine, saying that there was “no fight; it was completely fabricated.”
In an Instagram post teasing the new HBO Max series, Parker responded to a fan who noted that she “didn’t tag Samantha Jones” in the post.
“I don’t dislike her. I’ve never said that. Never would,” Parker wrote. “Samantha isn’t part of this story. But she will always be part of us. No matter where we are or what we do.”
Cynthia Nixon, who won an Emmy for her role as career-focused lawyer Miranda, said in an interview last year that she identifies as queer, after previously calling herself bisexual in 2012.
The actress met her wife Christine Marinoni in 2004, after separating from her husband, who she had been married to for 15 years.
“I could call myself a lesbian, gay, bisexual,” Nixon told Attitude. “But none of them seems really particularly right.”
She added: “To say ‘queer’ means, ‘I’m over there, I don’t have to go into the nuances of my sexuality with you.'”
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