Samantha Jones stans, your time has come. The best character (sorry it’s TRUE) from Sex and the City will appear on season two of And Just Like That…, and not just in text form.
Kim Cattrall is coming back.
Variety reported on May 31 that the fan favorite character will make her return in the season two finale—but only for one scene. And, per the report, “Cattrall’s appearance as Samantha will not be a continuation of the character for now.” (Sad.) Cattrall filmed her scene—a phone call with Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw—in New York on March 22. (For more on season two, click here.)
If you couldn’t help but wonder how this managed to happen, well, same. Because…let’s review all the reasons this wasn’t supposed to be possible.
During the original run of the series (1998-2004), there was reportedly tension between Cattrall and Parker. Parker and the other two main cast-members, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis, were apparently pretty close, and Cattrall was left out (reports differ on exactly how this played out). It probably didn’t help that while Carrie was the star, Samantha was the fan favorite. (Chris Noth has said that SJP was great on set…though Noth has since been accused of sexual misconduct, so, not the best endorsement).
Anyway, the group managed to pull it together for two movies (the first of which notably had Samantha in Los Angeles for much of the action, necessitating less on-set time with Parker and Cattrall together), with Cattrall reportedly holding up plans for a third because…well, depending on whom you ask, either she wanted more money or she just didn’t want to do it.
Then Cattrall’s brother passed away, Parker reached out, and Cattrall shut her down, perhaps the most public “evidence” of their feud. (A full drama recap can be found here)
By the time And Just Like That… rolled around, Cattrall was steadfast in her claim that she was simply done playing Samantha, and honestly, it was believable. She and Parker both agreed that given Kim’s public stance, there was no point even reaching out about the reboot. Two decades is a long time to stick with one character, and she had other projects in the works, like How I Met Your Father on Hulu.
For her part, Parker never seemed all that interested in bringing Kim Cattrall back, but left the door open…for Samantha. “There’s a very distinct line between Samantha and Kim. Samantha’s not gone. Samantha’s present, and I think was handled with such respect and elegance. She wasn’t villainized. She was a human being who had feelings about a relationship, so I think we found a way to address it, which was necessary and important for people that loved her,” she said.
On the show, her absence is explained by a move to Europe, though she’s still able to occasionally interact with Carrie via text message and, once, by sending flowers. Best of both worlds?
