Cold, hard “magic” made that And Just Like That… cameo possible

Michael Patrick King explains how Samantha is ever-present in And Just Like That…

By Matt Schimkowitz | June 22, 2023 | 10:15pm

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Cold, hard “magic” made that And Just Like That… cameo possible

Kristin Davis and Sarah Jessica Parker Photo: Craig Blankenhorn

Now that everyone knows Kim Cattrall will be making a “very small wave-at-the-fans kind of appearance” on the new season of And Just Like That…, creator Michael Patrick King has some explaining to do. Cattrall long avoided returning to the world of Sex And The City following the ladies’ two-and-a-half-hour trip to the UAE in 2010. But her presence looms large. Seemingly making matters worse, though Cattrall’s face doesn’t appear on camera in And Just Like That…’s
first season, her name does. Toward the conclusion of the first batch
of 10 episodes, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) gets a text from
Samantha, fanning the fandom’s flames of frustration that Cattrall never
made it to the series, but Che did. Now the actor returns after years of gossip that she and star Sarah Jessica Parker do not get along. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, King has some answers. For one thing, the thing that brought Cattrall back was “magic” or, as interviewer Lacey Rose calls it, “the number of zeroes on Kim’s paycheck.”

“Let me tell you, I like as much of a surprise in the show as I like as a viewer,” King said. “And I was like, ‘Hey, if it’s happening, it’s magical. Let’s just keep going.’”

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Though fans spent the first season complaining about Samantha scarcity on the show, King sees things differently. “Samantha has always been in And Just Like That…,” he said as if this explanation would be good enough for anyone. “The audience saw Carrie texting with her, and she sent flowers. And in my writer’s sense, when I’m away from the screen, they’re calling and seeing each other.” King’s headcanon didn’t leave room for more off-camera cameos from Samantha, but with the 25th anniversary coming up, “some magic happened behind the scenes” that made Cattrall’s isolated cameo—which didn’t require her interacting with Parker or King—possible.

King doesn’t like to get specific about it, insisting it “was magic” that brought her back. And what is magic if not negotiation techniques we don’t understand yet?

And Just Like That… streams on Thursdays on Max.