'And Just Like That...' Showrunner: New Series Never Included Samantha

Michael Patrick King, writer and director of "Sex and the City" as a TV series and movie franchise and now a writer on "And Just Like That..." says the new show was never planned to include Kim Cattrall's involvement or her character, Samantha Jones, Us Weekly reported.

Drawing from comments King made to The Hollywood Reporter, Us Weekly detailed that "The SATC writer revealed that the new series was always intended to feature just the trio of Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda Hobbs and Charlotte York, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis, respectively."

Cattrall, King said, had made her lack of interest in continuing with the character abundantly clear when she refused to be part of a planned third movie. That project never came to fruition, and the sequel series will not be a TV adaptation of that third film – though, THR noted, King "confirms there are strands from it" in the new show.

Cattrall, 65, has commented that she's no longer interested in playing the role due to her age. In 2017, Us Weekly recalled, she told a fan on Instagram, "I've moved on. 61 isn't 53 or 41."

Cattrall has also thrown shade at co-star Sarah Jessica Parker, saying "she could have been nicer" during the years they worked together on the first series.

"Sex and the City" fans were vocal from the moment the new was announced about their disappointment that Cattrall's character would not be back. But, as reported previously at EDGE, the powers that be have left the door open, just in case, by not killing Samantha off.

Rather, the explanation for Samantha's absence has been that her friendship with main character Carrie Bradshaw simply ran its natural course.

"Just as in real life, people come into your life, people leave," HBO Max Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys explained earlier this year. "Friendships fade, and new friendships start. So I think it is all very indicative of the real stages, the actual stages of life."

As recently as last month, hopes were still being expressed that Cattrall might have a change of heart, with UK newspaper the Daily Mail reporting that, according to "insiders," the new show's writing staff "have left the plot open for Cattrall's return and are hoping she'll come back to reprise her role for Season 2."

But King isn't looking over his shoulder; he told THR that "even though people think this is a franchise that they're familiar with, there's something new in this version. This isn't what was; it's what's next."