Samantha has left the city
Fans upset character isn’t in ‘ Sex and the City’ revival.
Is it still “Sex and the City” without Samantha Jones? Looks like it will have to be.
“And Just Like That …,” a new limited- series revival of the 1998 “SATC” concept just ordered by HBO Max, stars only three of the original series’ lead actresses: Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis.
The new series, which will have 10 half- hour episodes, is scheduled to start production in New York in late spring. It will follow Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda Hobbes and Charlotte York as they navigate what HBO Max called “the even more complicated reality of life and friendship in their 50s.”
Parker posted a teaser trailer for the new show Sunday on Instagram, captioning it: “I couldn’t help but wonder … where are they now?”
Nixon also posted the trailer, with the comment, “You, me, New York … anything is possible.” Davis did the same, writing: “Anything is possible … Meet you there!”
When New York Times magazine writer Taffy BrodesserAkner tweeted Sunday that she wanted “your suggested plot line that explains Samantha’s absence” from the upcoming limited series, Parker replied that she had “Pen and paper at ready.”
Later, Parker added: “Exceeding all expectations. I am summoning discipline though desperate to suggest ‘ hot/ cold.’ ”
Parker, Nixon and Davis are all executive producers on the new show, along with Michael Patrick King, a main writer on “SATC” and director of the two movies spun from the series.
The original “Sex and the City” ran on HBO for six seasons.
Rumours about a feud between Canadian actress Kim Cattrall and Parker began when the series was on the air and only intensified over the years as the disagreements became more open. Cattrall eventually said she was not interested in doing a third “SATC” movie.
“This isn’t about more money, this is not about more scenes, it’s not about any of those things,” Cattrall told Piers Morgan in 2017.
“This is about a clear decision, an empowered decision in my life to end one chapter and start another … it’s quite extraordinary to get any kind of negative press about something that I’ve been saying for almost a year of ‘ no’ that I’m demanding or a diva … I never asked for any money, I never asked for any projects, to be thought of as some kind of diva is absolutely ridiculous.”
She added that she had “never” been friends with her “SATC” co- stars, specifically calling out Parker. “We’ve been colleagues and in some ways it’s a very healthy place to be.”
The feud went more public in February 2018 after Cattrall’s brother died, prompting Parker to offer 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.”
Still, Cattrall, who now stars on Fox’s “Filthy Rich,” doesn’t regret “SATC” being part of her career.
“I don’t think anybody really knew what it would become, or how it would be at that moment ( part of the) zeitgeist — to open up doors … for women to express themselves in a very honest, forthright way about how they felt about sexuality, or how they even interacted with their girlfriends in a real way,” she told the Times in September.
Samantha fans online were not pleased by the turn of events regarding the revived limited series.
Said Twitter user @ ephhemere on Monday: “samantha jones is the heart of sex and the city.”
“A Sex and the City reboot without Samantha is like a Spice Girls reunion without Posh. Makes me sideeye both for not partaking and it certainly won’t be the same, but we will take what we can get,” tweeted @ hollyshortall.
“And just like that… it was as if Samantha never existed,” tweeted @ james_ griffin97. “As my driver drove past the area Samatha ( sic) once lived, I couldn’t help but wonder… If we could make it through 2020, why couldn’t we get through this feud?”