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It would be an understatement at this point to say And Just Like That — the long-awaited, highly-anticipated Sex and the City reboot — was controversial. From the moment the series premiered on HBO Max on Dec. 9 to its finale on Feb. 3, it proved to be a lightning rod for charged conversations surrounding sex (and gender), race, aging, sociopolitics, parenting, and, yes, fashion.
The show also managed to be surprisingly mired in drama for a quote-unquote new series, largely due to the glaring absence of Kim Cattrall (Samantha Jones) and the sexual assault allegations against Chris Noth (Mr. Big) that came to light early in the season. With so much working against it, the average viewer might easily assume And Just Like That Season 2 would be a non-starter. But if you ask longtime fans of Carrie Bradshaw and her crew, they’ll all say the same: We need a second season, if for no other reason than to prove our fictional best friends can do better than this freshman effort.
Fortunately, And Just Like That has been greenlit for another season, with HBO Max and others involved in the production (including Carrie Bradshaw herself: star-slash-executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker) weighing in. The latest development? First-look photos reveal that John Corbett, aka Carrie’s ex-fiancé Aidan Shaw, is coming back into the mix. And SJP herself is even hinting that this will be a welcome development for longtime fans of the series.
Here’s everything we know so far about what the future holds for the nostalgia-driven show.
Is there a Season 2 And Just Like That Trailer?
Yes! It dropped on April 26 and it’s filled with a few good glimpses of what will take place during the show’s second season.
What does it reveal? Lots of stuff. In it, we see Charlotte’s daughter declaring that she’s ready to lose her virginity, Miranda spilling that she and Che is taking things to a new level, and Carrie sharing that she’s engaging in grief sex.
We also get another good glimpse at Aidan entering the picture.
Here’s the full trailer:
Has And Just Like That been renewed yet?
Warning: Spoiler alerts about Season 1 of And Just Like That ahead!
Yes! On March 22, HBO Max announced the sequel series will, in fact, return for a sophomore season. Series executive producer Michael Patrick King celebrated in a statement, saying, “I am delighted and excited to tell more stories about these vibrant, bold, characters — played by these powerful, amazing actors. The fact is, we’re all thrilled. And Just Like That… our Sex life is back.”
Also weighing in on the news was Sarah Aubrey, Head of Original Content at HBO Max. “We have been delighted by the cultural conversation generated by these characters and their stories, set in a world we already know and love so much,” Aubrey said. “We are proud of the work Michael Patrick King and our wonderful writers, producers, cast, and crew have done to bring these stories to the screen. We can’t wait for fans to see what’s in store for Season 2!”
Even before the renewal, the sequel series’ prospects felt hopeful. When asked by TVLine why fans don’t have a renewal announcement yet, HBO and HBO Max’s Chief Content Officer Casey Bloys explained it wasn’t really up to them — they’re leaving it in the hands of Parker and showrunner Michael Patrick King.
“It’s honestly Michael and Sarah Jessica[‘s] decision. They need to make sure they want to keep going. I believe they will,” Bloys told TVLine, adding, “The show did well, so we’re excited, but we’re just letting them have their process and think about the show and what they want to do.”
Wait, Aidan is coming back?!
Thanks to some very exciting first-look photos released on Jan. 13, 2023, we now know Bradshaw’s old onscreen flame John Corbett is back in her orbit. Is this the Carrie and Aidan reunion we’ve been dreaming of?! The pair look pretty cozy in the pics. And is it just us, or is Aidan — dressed in purple slacks and a leather bomber jacket — looking much more, um, fashionable?
In a recent interview with Extra’s Adam Glassman, Parker hinted that Carrie and Aidan coming back together is definitely a good thing — although it’s still unclear in what capacity he’ll be returning to her life. “It’s so nice,” Parker said of filming with Corbett again. “It’s so happy. He brings a lot of joy.”
She added, “He’s a kind of preternaturally happy person and he’s so excited to be back, and it’s an amazing storyline that Michael [Patrick King] and the writers have sorted out, and I think will be really meaningful to the audience who feel a lot of affection for him.”
When pressed for more details, Parked remained coy. “I can’t say anything except, it’s just really great to be in his company again and to have a storyline, though, that is also happy and fun and familiar,” she teased.
Which other cast members will we see again?
Count Parker in! “Definitely, yeah,” she told Variety when asked if she’d slip back into Carrie Bradshaw’s Manolos for a second installment. “It always felt exciting to play Carrie. To consider doing it again and to be on the set, it felt really good.”
Kristin Davis (Charlotte York Goldenblatt) hinted she’d love to return, too. “The Rose [who now goes by Rock] journey is going to be a long one. It’s probably not something that’s going to have a distinct end with this season, at least,” she told Vanity Fair. “Hopefully, we’ll get to come back, and you’ll see what ends up happening with Rose.”
It’s also fairly safe to assume that Cynthia Nixon as Miranda Hobbes, David Eigenberg as Steve Brady, Evan Handler as Harry Goldenblatt, and Mario Cantone as Anthony Marentino will all return for And Just Like That Season 2.
The genuine hope would be that some of the phenomenal new recurring characters — which, let’s be real, often outshone the originals — will also be back. That means we’d see the return of Nicole Ari Park as Lisa Todd Wexley or LTW, Karen Pittman as Dr. Nya Wallace, Sarita Choudhury as Seema Patel, and Sara Ramirez as Che Diaz. And can we all agree that podcast producer and Carrie’s potential new love interest Franklyn (Ivan Hernandez), Rabbi Jen (Hari Nef), and Natasha Naginsky-Mills (Bridget Moynahan) should all come back and get more air time the second go-around?
Who’ll be missing?
As for who wouldn’t be in And Just Like That Season 2, there’s Noth, first and foremost. Between his character being written off and the sexual assault allegations against him (which he has denied), he probably wouldn’t even appear in flashbacks.
Kim Cattrall returning as Samantha Jones will likely (still) never happen. Despite Cattrall airing many negative feelings over the years towards Parker, her other castmates, and the production as a whole, And Just Like That managed to work Samantha in via text messages throughout the season. And while the audience never got to see Samantha in person, Carrie even met up with her (offscreen) when she traveled to Paris to dump Big’s ashes off “their bridge.” While fans hoped the seeming Carrie-Samantha reconciliation meant a Parker-Cattrall reconciliation could be in the stars, that doesn’t look like something that’s going to happen — at least not publicly, and not in a way that would bring Cattrall back to the series in person. Plus, King straight up said he had “no realistic expectation of Kim Cattrall ever appearing again.” So, there’s that.
And finally, our beloved Stanford Blatch will forever be off cavorting the globe with the influencer he left NYC to manage — actor Willie Garson tragically passed away from pancreatic cancer while filming Season 1. It goes without saying he will be deeply missed in all his forms.
When could And Just Like That Season 2 drop?
Alas, unless Parker, King, and the rest of the creative minds behind the series have a secret second-season script already hiding somewhere, it could be *a minute*. Bloys hinted to TVLine that part of the lag in renewal status could have to do with nailing down another storyline. “They came to us with this idea of Big dying as a way to get into a story about women in their 50s. I think they want to make sure they have something they’re equally excited by,” he explained. “They’re talking about [the] story. I believe they’re going to come to us with something they’re excited about.”
Further complicating the filming of a second season? The fact that the cast and crew have other projects happening in tandem. “Obviously, people have multiple jobs, like Cynthia Nixon is doing [the just-renewed] Gilded Age. Everybody’s got a lot going on,” said Bloys.
Still, if you channel all of the eternal optimism of Charlotte, you could cross your fingers and hope the series will release a second installment in early 2023. With COVID-19 restrictions easing, filming delays are less likely than a year ago. But if you were to channel your inner cynic, a la Miranda (at least OG Miranda and not new, weirdly romantic, Che-loving Miranda), you’d probably resign yourself to the fact that a second season is far more likely to release in the spring or early summer of 2023.
What will And Just Like That Season 2 be about?
Well, let’s start with saying they’re definitely going to have to address the whole Che-Miranda-Steve debacle. Fans expressed a fair amount of outrage over Steve’s treatment in Season 1, so maybe he gets a love interest? And new hearing aids, so he isn’t always going, “Huh? What??” When we left her, newly naive Miranda was abandoning a coveted internship to fly to L.A. and be with Che while they filmed their pilot. Whether that implodes or thrives remains to be seen, but it would surely play out in Season 2.
Charlotte, as Davis hinted, would continue to grapple with being a modern mom of teens. Carrie, well, everyone obviously needs to see more of the relationship between her and Franklyn that led to that explosive elevator kiss in the Season 1 finale, although we’re all clearly dying to see where Aidan fits into her post-Big love life, too.
And all of the new characters’ stories would likely expand, which we already saw a hint of with Seema and her new fling Zed (played by William Abadie). Could Dr. Nya Wallace become pregnant, or will the epiphany that she may not want kids derail her dreamy relationship with her husband? As for LTW, just give us more, please!
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