Having solved his Samantha Jones problem, “And Just Like That...” executive producer and co-creator Michael Patrick King is realistic about one thing: Kim Cattrall won’t be back in the “Sex and the City” universe.
“The only place I participate in magical thinking is in fiction,” King told Variety in an interview published Tuesday. “You take people at their word, and you’re a smart producer — you don’t back yourself into a corner. Magically thinking, it’s great to have Samantha. I have no realistic expectation of Kim Cattrall ever appearing again.”
He said there was “no thought” that Cattrall would appear in HBO Max’s “And Just Like That ...” as Samantha Jones because the actress “said what she had said.”
Now, Cattrall has said a lot of things over the years — most of them pretty scathing about her experience on “Sex and the City” — so it’s unclear exactly what King was referencing. Still, the whole situation has been noteworthy.
Rumors about a feud between Cattrall and “SATC” co-star Sarah Jessica Parker began when the original HBO series was on the air in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
It intensified over the years as the disagreements became more open, with Cattrall saying she and the other three actresses — Parker, Kristen Davis and Cynthia Nixon — had never been friends, only “colleagues.”
She eventually said she wasn’t interested in doing a third “Sex and the City” movie. Then the feud turned very personal in early 2018 after Cattrall’s brother died and Parker offered condolences via Instagram.
“Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now,” Cattrall wrote in reply. “Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven’t already) You are not my family. You are not my friend.”
Hmm. That would be awkward to overcome in the workplace. Still, King said, figuring out a solution to his Samantha problem was a pretty huge deal.
“It was a big day for me as a writer when I realized that even though Kim Cattrall didn’t want to be in the series, Samantha could be — because of texting,” he said. “I was like, ‘Right! Samantha can be in the show.’”
The character has always been a big part of the “SATC” universe, he said, and he wanted to respect that legacy.
“It’s the power of writing. It’s all make believe. It’s all pretend! There is an obstacle: Kim Cattrall doesn’t want to do the series. What do you do with that? It’s a normal writing problem.”
King decided to relocate Samantha to London and have her send Carrie texts from time to time. King seemed pleased that he was able to keep the character’s vibe in the show.
“It’s kind of magical that all of a sudden on a text, Samantha makes a Samantha joke,” he said. “And you feel like she’s there again.”
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