For one night only, the “Sex and the City” universe will be whole again. Variety has learned that Kim Cattrall will reprise her iconic role as Samantha Jones in the Season 2 finale of “And Just Like That,” Max’s revival of HBO’s “Sex and the City.”
But she will only appear in one scene. According to sources, Cattrall shot her dialogue on March 22 in New York City, without seeing or speaking with the stars of the series, including Sarah Jessica Parker, or with “And Just Like That” showrunner Michael Patrick King.
In the scene, Samantha, who in the show has moved to London, will have a phone conversation with Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw. In the first season of “And Just Like That,” Carrie engaged with an estranged Samantha over text, and in the finale, the two made a plan to see each other in order to reconcile.
Famed “Sex and the City” costume designer Patricia Field, who has not been working on “And Just Like That,” dressed Samantha for her scene.
A rep for Cattrall didn’t respond to request for comment. Max did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Cattrall’s appearance as Samantha will not be a continuation of the character for now.
Still, the return of Samantha in any form will certainly thrill “Sex and the City” fans, who have been clamoring for even a glimpse of the beloved, empowered publicist who put the “sex” in the groundbreaking series that ran on HBO for six seasons from 1998 to 2004, and led to two movies.
Cattrall publicly announced in 2016 that she done playing Samantha when she didn’t feel like the script for a proposed third film did justice to the character. “I would have preferred for all of us to have some kind of event to warrant a third film,” Cattrall told Variety in 2022. “That didn’t happen.”
Her decision to step away from Samantha led to a public fallout with Parker. When King and Parker decided to reboot “Sex and the City” as a new series for what was then HBO Max in 2021, Cattrall wasn’t approached to reprise Samantha, and the new show added other characters — to mixed reviews — in the lives of Carrie, Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristen Davis) to fill her place.
As they were doing press last year, both Parker and King said that they couldn’t fathom a scenario in which Cattrall would play Samantha again. But as the second season of “And Just Like That” was underway, shooting in New York this past winter, Casey Bloys, the chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, approached Cattrall about putting her stilettos back on as Samantha, which led to her decision to say yes.
Cattrall is currently starring in Lionsgate film “About My Father” with Robert De Niro. She’ll next play a makeup mogul in the Netflix drama “Glamorous,” which premieres on June 22.
The second season of “And Just Like That” also premieres on June 22, but Cattrall’s scene as Samantha won’t air until August.
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