“Sex and the City” is officially being rebooted, but without one of its most iconic characters.
Kim Cattrall, the Canadian actress who played the bold, pithy Samantha Jones on the show’s six seasons and two movies, has made it clear in past interview that she will not be returning for the HBO Max series. Called “And Just Like That...” the series will “follow Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte as they navigate the journey from the complicated reality of life and friendship in their 30s to the even more complicated reality of life and friendship in their 50s,” according to a press release. The show, which will start filming in late spring, will be released on Crave in Canada.
In the Instagram comments on a promo she posted on Sunday, series star Sarah Jessica Parker specified that Samantha will not be a part of the new series.
“Samantha isn’t part of this story,” Parker wrote. “But she will always be part of us. No matter where we are or what we do.”
Cattrall has stated her opposition to another sequel or a reboot many times. Despite the fact that the two “Sex and the City” movies were deeply embarrassing displays of conspicuous consumption, there was apparently appetite for a third a few years ago. In a 2017 interview, Cattrall repeatedly made it very clear that she was done.
“The answer was simply, ‘Thank you, but no, I’m good,’” she told Piers Morgan. “The answer was always no and a respectful, firm, no.”
That didn’t stop producers, who came back to her a few months later with the same ask, she said. “And I thought to myself, I already know the answer.”
Cattrall took issue with media coverage that framed her as selfish or unreasonable for refusing to reprise the role.
“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,” she said. “And this is really where I take to task the people from ‘Sex and the City’, and specifically Sarah Jessica Parker, in that I think she could have been nicer.”
Cattrall has also given her blessing to have Samantha re-cast with another actress.
“It’s a great part! I played it past the finish line and then some, and I loved it,” she told Morgan. “And another actress should play it. Maybe they could make it an African-American Samantha Jones! Or a Hispanic Samantha Jones!”
It’s not clear how exactly the show will handle Samantha’s absence. After New York Times Magazine journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner called for suggestions about how the remake should explain why she’s not there, Parker replied, “Pen and paper at ready.”
Samantha will be missed, according to many Twitter users.
“Sex and the City” is a show about dating and the messiness of romantic relationships, but the central focus has always been on female friendship. The four main characters — Parker’s Carrie, Cattrall’s Samantha, Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda and Kristin Davis’s Charlotte — form the show’s core, its central relationship.
And while they could sometimes fall into archetypes, it was Samantha — the most sex-positive character, with her distinctive voice that travelled octaves and a penchant for bad puns — who was undoubtedly the most memorable, and the most boundary-breaking.
HuffPost Canada reached out to Cattrall’s representation for comment, but has not yet heard back.