Sarah Jessica Parker Confirms Aidan’s Return on ‘And Just Like That’ Season 2

Since the end of the Sex and the City reboot, fans have had one question on their minds: Will there be an And Just Like That season 2 and who will be returning to the Sex and the City universe?

After much speculation and THAT shock death in the show’s first season, Sarah Jessica Parker has gone on the record to confirm one of Carrie’s great loves, Aidan Shaw (played by John Corbett), will be returning for season two. “Could be, could be,” she said in an interview with ET. “Well, you know, I can’t be like, cryptic about it anymore.” Deadline first reported Corbett would reprise his role of Aidan in August 2022.

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And Just Like That—whose full title is And Just Like That…A New Chapter in Sex and the City—is a reboot of HBO’s comedy series, Sex and the City, which ran for six seasons from 1998 to 2004. The show, which was based on Candace Bushnell’s 1997 book of the same title
, followed four women in their 30s and 40s—Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis)—and their sex lives in New York City. The show went on to win four Emmy Awards (including Outstanding Comedy Series in 2001) and release two movies, Sex and the City: The Movie in 2008 and Sex and the City 2 in 2010.

In January 2021, HBO announced that a Sex and the City reboot,  titled And Just Like That, was in the works for HBO Max. The reboot sees the return of each of the main cast members—except Cattrall, who has retired as the role of Samantha. And Just Like That premiered in December 2021 and ran for nine episodes until its finale in February 2022. The series was met with mixed reviews from Sex and the City fans, but there’s no doubt viewers were watching. In December 2021, Deadline that reported that the premiere of And Just Like That was the highest-rated debut from any HBO Max series. “In terms of viewership, it’s been phenomenal. I couldn’t be happier with how it’s doing in terms of reception,” Casey Bloys, the chief content officer at HBO and HBO Max, told Variety in February 2022.

So will there be an And Just Like That season 2? Read on for what we know about a second season for Sex and the City reboot and whether Samantha could return.

Will there be an And Just Like That season 2?

Will there be an And Just Like That season 2? Yes! On March 22, 2022, HBO Max confirmed that And Just Like That was officially renewed for a second season.
“I am delighted and excited to tell more stories about these vibrant, bold characters – played by these powerful, amazing actors,” executive producer Michael Patrick King said in a statement at the time. “The fact is, we’re all thrilled. And just like that… our Sex life is back.”

Sarah Aubrey, HBO Max’s head of original content, added, “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. 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!”

HBO’s And Just Like That season 2 confirmation isn’t a huge surprise for fans, as executive producers Michael Patrick King and Sarah Jessica Parker (who also stars as Carrie Bradshaw) both hinted that there would be a second season of the series during in an interview with Variety in February 2022. “We did something that was hard to do, which is we took something familiar and did make it new,” King said. “For better and for worse.” Parker added, “Michael and I spoke two weeks ago, and said: ‘OK, when are we going to talk about this?’ Because there’s a calendar and you don’t want to let too much time pass. There feels like there’s momentum.”

King also confirmed to Deadline at the time that conversations had started about And Just Like That season 2. “We’re having conversations right now between us about the storylines with the actors and with the network. I mean, it’s a very alive franchise—let’s just say that,” he said. A source also told Page Six in January 2022 that the creators wanted to make And Just Like That season 2 to redeem themselves after the negative reviews for season 1. “They may feel that they want to prove a point that they can make a second season stronger and that it was valid to bring it back for fans,” the insider said. Another source added that the decision would come down to HBO. “It’s an expensive show to make and HBO Max will have to look at how many subscribers it brought in — and how many subscribers actually stayed watching the show each week,” the insider said.

HBO and HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys told Vulture in December 2021 that And Just Like That season 2 was “certainly a conversation we’ll have—for sure. But we haven’t decided anything or done anything.” He continued, “I’m going to leave it up to these guys to figure out what they want to do, but I’m very happy with what they’ve done. I will tell you, it’s kind of what you want in a show like this. It really does feel like you’re picking up with old friends and haven’t missed a beat.”

Sarita Choudhury, who plays Seema Patel, also told Entertainment Tonight in January 2022 about her hopes for And Just Like That season 2. “Just the other day, I was thinking, ‘I wonder.’ Because there’s a point where they let you know if there is or not and we’re not at that point yet. I was thinking, ‘God, I hope there is,’ And also, I was thinking, you know when you bring in new characters and you just start establishing and everyone’s getting used to all of us having grown up, Carrie’s grown up,” she said. “I feel like the second [season] would be able to just jump into who they really are as opposed to getting the audience used to seeing what they’re seeing. So I would love a second season, but I really don’t know.”

When is And Just Like That season 2 coming out?

While there’s no official word from HBO Max about a premiere date for And Just Like That season 2, fans can expect to wait for quite some time before the series’ return. With the season renewal taking place in March 2022, series showrunner Michael Patrick King will now begin the process of bringing the cast, crew and scripts together for And Just Like That season 2. Assuming production wraps in late 2022—similar to And Just Like That season 1 in December 2021—the soonest fans can expect to see And Just Like That season 2 is in December 2022 or early 2023.

What will And Just Like That season 2 be about?

What will And Just Like That season 2 be about? And Just Like That season 1 ended with Carrie Bradshaw finding closure after the death of her husband, John James Preston (a.k.a. Mr. Big), who died of a heart attack in the premiere. Carrie scatters Big’s ashes from the Pont des Arts in Paris, France, into the Seine River, where she and Big reunited in the finale of Sex and the City season 6. And Just Like That season 1 also ends with Carrie and her podcast producer, Franklyn, kissing in the elevator of their podcast studio. The kiss came after Carrie’s third date with Peter in the start of the finale ended with a lackluster kiss. The finale also sees Carrie text Samantha Jones in Paris and ask her for a drink, to which Samantha agrees.

For Miranda Hobbes, And Just Like That ended with Miranda moving to Los Angeles after Che Diaz is offered a TV pilot and ends their podcast with Carrie. To be with Che, Miranda tells her Columbia University professor, Dr. Nya Wallace, that will be finishing the semester remotely and had declined an internship with the Human Rights Watch to be with Che. For Charlotte York, And Just Like That ends with Charlotte throwing a “They” Mitzvah for their nonbinary child, Rock. Rock, who tells Charlotte and they no longer identify as Jewish, decides to not take part in the “They” Mitzvah. Charlotte, who converted to Judaism in Sex and the City and never had a Bat Mitzvah, takes Rock’s place. And Just Like That also sees Nya separate from her husband, Andre Rashad Wallace, and Carrie’s real estate agent, Seema Patel, develop a passionate relationship with night club owner Zed.

While the plot for And Just Like That season 2 hasn’t been confirmed yet, it’s expected that the second season will follow the story of season 1: Carrie’s relationship with Franklyn continues; Miranda and Che live together in L.A. as Che films their pilot; Charlotte adapts as a parent as Rock matures; and Carrie and Samantha mend their friendship after their fight between Sex and the City and And Just Like That.

Will Samantha be in And Just Like That season 2?

Will Samantha be in And Just Like That? The answer is no. Though Carrie and Samantha seemed to have mended their relationship in the finale of And Just Like That season 1, Kim Cattrall, who played Samantha Jones on Sex and the City, still has drama with with Sarah Jessica Parker and the Sex and the City franchise as a whole. In an interview with Variety in February 2022, Michael Patrick King revealed that the door isn’t “open” for Cattrall to return as Samantha. “No. Just like there was no thought that Kim would ever participate in And Just Like That, because she’s said what she had said,” he said. He continued, “The only place I participate in magical thinking is in fiction… Magically thinking, it’s great to have Samantha. I have no realistic expectation of Kim Cattrall ever appearing again.”

During the premiere of And Just Like That, Bitsy Von Muffling, a character from Sex and the City, runs into Carrie, Charlotte and Miranda at a restaurant and asks why Samantha wasn’t with them. Carrie and Miranda explain that Samantha moved to London for a job. The viewers learn in a conversation between Carrie and Miranda later in the episode that Carrie hired Samantha to be her publicist for her books, but let her go when the publishing industry went took a turn for the worse. Samantha took the move as a hit to her “ego” and “fired” Carrie as a friend (in Carrie’s own words.) She also cut off Miranda and Charlotte and moved to London.

In a tweet in 2017, Cattrall—who played Samantha Jones for all six seasons of Sex and the City and two movies—confirmed that she had retired as the character after news broke that a third Sex and the City movie had been cancelled. “Woke 2 a @MailOnline (poop emoji) storm! The only ‘DEMAND’ I ever made was that I didn’t want to do a 3rd film….& that was back in 2016,” Cattrall tweeted at the time in response to a Daily Mail article that reported that she would only sign on for Sex and the City 3 if the production studio for the movie, Warner Bros. Pictures, also produced her other projects.

“The only reason this movie isn’t being made is because of Kim Cattrall. Everyone was looking forward to making this movie but Kim made it all about her, always playing the victim,” a source told The Daily Mail at the time. “Kim had the audacity to tell Warner Bros that she would only do this if they made other movies she had in development. Ridiculous. Who does she think she is—George Clooney?” Another source added, “This franchise made her and let’s be frank, it’s all she is really known for. Cast and crew don’t just show up to make a movie, they have to rearrange their lives. People turned down other jobs, were in the process of relocating to New York but she kept stalling and was always unavailable when answers from her were needed.”

In an interview with Piers Morgan in October 2017, Cattrall made it clear that she would never play Samantha again. “Not for me. That was part of turning 60. That was a very clear moment of, how many years do I have left and what do I want to do with it? What haven’t I done? I feel that the show was the best when it was the series and the bonus was the two movies,” she said. She explained that she rejected the offer for a third Sex and the City movie because she wants to move on to a new “chapter” in her life.

“The answer was simply thank you, but no, I’m good,” she said. “This isn’t about more money. It’s not about more scenes. It’s not about any of those things. This is about a clear decision, an empowered decision in my life to end one chapter and start another,” she said. “It’s a great part. I played it past the finish line and then some, and I loved it.” Cattrall also confirmed in the interview that she and Sarah Jessica Parker (who plays Carrie Bradshaw) have “never been friends.” “We’ve been colleagues and, in some ways, it’s a very healthy place to be,” she said at the time. Cattrall also accused SJP of continuing the narrative that she quit Sex and the City because she wanted more money. “This is really where I take to task the people from Sex and the City, and specifically Sarah Jessica Parker,” Cattrall said. “I think she could’ve been nicer. I really think she could’ve been nicer. I don’t know what her issue is.”

That same month, Page Six reported that Cattrall had been on outs with Parker and the rest of the Sex and the City cast well before plans for a third movie. According to the newspaper, there was an incident in season 5 of Sex and the City when Parker rented a house with Nixon and Davis in Atlantic City for a shoot but didn’t include Cattrall. (A spokesperson for HBO told Page Six at the time that Cattrall didn’t stay with her co-stars because her husband was supposed to come.) A source also told Page Six at the time that toward the end of the Sex and the City, Cattrall wasn’t on speaking terms with any of the cast.

In February 2018, Cattrall slammed SJP for an Instagram comment her former co-star made at the time about her brother’s death. “My Mom asked me today ‘When will that @sarahjessicaparker, that hypocrite, leave you alone?’ Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now,” Cattrall wrote on her Instagram at the time. “Let me make this VERY clear. (If I haven’t already) You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I’m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your ‘nice girl’ persona.”

While Cattrall has said that money wasn’t the sole reason she decided to retire as Samantha, she has expressed her dissatisfaction with how much she’s been paid on Sex in the City in the past. In an interview on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross in 2004, Cattrall hinted that the pay disparity on Sex and the City between her and SJP was part of the reason she decided to “move on” from the show.  “I felt after six years it was time for all of us to participate in the financial windfall of Sex and the City,” she said at the time. “When they didn’t seem keen on that I thought it was time to move on.”

A source told The New York Post in 2017 that some of the Sex and the City crew didn’t think it was fair that Parker was the highest paid when Samantha was the favorite character for most viewers. “There was a disparity between what Sarah got and what the other girls got. Everyone loved Kim’s character, people related to her—and [Kim’s] salary wasn’t showing that,” the insider said. According to Bustle, Cattrall asked to be paid $1 million per episode for Sex and the City season 7. The request was rejected, which may explain why the series ended after season 6.

As for the films, Cattrall also earned less than SJP. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Cattrall made made $7 million for the first film and $10 million for the second, which was about half of what SJP made. (Cattrall did, however, make more than co-stars Davis and Nixon). In 2017, Variety also reported that Cattrall initially didn’t sign on for the first film but did so after she was offered a raise.

Who is in the And Just Like That season 2 cast?

Who’s in the And Just Like That season 2 cast? The cast for And Just Like That season 2 hasn’t been confirmed but it’s expected that main cast members—Sarah Jessica Parker (Carrie Bradshaw), Cynthia Nixon (Miranda Hobbes) and Kristin Davis (Charlotte York)—will return. Supporting cast members Mario Cantone (Anthony Marentino), Evan Handler (Harry Goldenblatt), Sara Ramirez (Che Diaz), Sarita Choudhury (Seema Patel), Nicole Ari Parker (Lisa Todd Wexley) and Karen Pittman (Dr. Nya Wallace).

The cast members who are confirmed not to return are Willie Garson (Stanford Blatch) and Chris Noth (John James Preston a.k.a. Mr. Big.). Garson, who played Stanford in Sex and the City and both movies, died of complications related to pancreatic cancer at his home in Los Angeles on September 21, 2021, in the middle of filming And Just Like That. Garson starred as Stanford in the first three episodes of And Just Like That. In episode four of the Sex and the City reboot, viewers learn that he was written out of the show after he moves to Tokyo, Japan, to manage a 17-year-old TikTok star named Ashley who’s “huge in Asia” and asked Stanford to go on tour with her. Carrie learns this when she’s sent a letter from Stanford that reads, “By the time you read this, I’ll be in Tokyo. I couldn’t tell you—not without crying. And you have had enough crying.” Carrie then receives a knock at her door from Anthony Marantino, Stanford’s husband. Anthony then tells Carrie that Stanford also sent him a letter asking for a divorce. “I don’t get it. We were so happy,” he says.

Mr. Big, for his part, died in the shower at the end of the first episode of And Just Like That when Carrie is at a piano recital for Charlotte’s daughter, Lily. The scene starts with Big on his Peloton as he finishes an intensive class. The scene flashes back and forth between Big at home and Carrie at the recital as Lily plays a dramatic song on the piano. After Big finishes his Peloton class, the scene continues with him texting Carrie that he wants to leave for the Hamptons that night as he prepares for a shower. However, before he enters the shower, Big grabs his chest and arm in pain before he slumps to the floor and drops his phone. When Carrie returns to their apartment after the recital, she sees Big slumped over next to the shower and runs over to him as she tries to revive him. The episode ends with Carrie’s voiceover as she says, “And just like that…Big died.”

Noth, who played Big in Sex and the City and both movies, was also accused of sexual assault by two women in a report by The Hollywood Reporter in December 2021. One woman, referred to as Lily, sent an email to THR in August 2021. “I’m not sure how you go about this sort of story and how you find the other victims,” she wrote at the time. The other woman, Zoe, contacted the magazine in October 2021. “Seeing that he was reprising his role in Sex and the City set off something in me,” she told THR. “For so many years, I buried it,” she said, before adding that it was time “to try to go public with who he is.”

In a statement at the time, Noth denied the allegations and claimed that “the encounters were consensual.” “The accusations against me made by individuals I met years, even decades, ago are categorically false,” he said. “These stories could’ve been from 30 years ago or 30 days ago — no always means no — that is a line I did not cross. It’s difficult not to question the timing of these stories coming out. I don’t know for certain why they are surfacing now, but I do know this: I did not assault these women.”

In THR’s report, Zoe said that she met Noth after moving to Los Angeles when she was 22 and working at a “high-profile” firm that did business with celebrities in 2004. “He would walk by my desk and flirt with me. He somehow got my number from the directory and was leaving messages on my work phone. My boss was like, ‘Mr. Big’s leaving messages on your voicemail,'” she said.

Zoe told THR that she was later invited to the pool at Noth’s West Hollywood apartment building. While there, she claimed that he lent her a book to read and told her to return it to his apartment. When she went to return it, she said he kissed her and. After she stopped the kiss and went to return to the pol, Zoe alleged that Noth pulled her toward him, took her shorts and bikini bottoms off and assaulted her. “It was very painful and I yelled out, ‘Stop!'” she said. “And he didn’t. I said, ‘Can you at least get a condom?’ and he laughed at me.” “I realized there was blood on my shirt. I got out of there. I went to my friend’s apartment [in the same building].”

Lily told THR that she met Noth when she was 25 years old in 2015 at a New York City bar where she worked as a server. She said that Noth invited her to dinner, which she accepted. After dinner they went to his apartment in Greenwich Village. We were listening to music, and he has all these books about art and fashion. He tried to make out with me. I cautiously entertained it. He’s older and looked older,” she said. “He kept trying and trying and trying, and I should have said no more firmly and left. And then the next thing I knew, he pulled down his pants and he was standing in front of me.” Lily then told THR that Noth then thrust his penis into her mouth before he had sex cwith her. “He was having sex with me from the back in a chair. We were in front of a mirror. I was kind of crying as it happened,” she said. “I went to the bathroom and put on my skirt. I was feeling awful. Totally violated. All of my dreams with this star I loved for years were gone.”

A source told Us Weekly in December 2021 that the allegations against Noth had affected conversations about And Just Like That season 2. “There was talk about doing another season, but after the past few days all those conversations have stopped,” the the insider said. “Everyone is raw.”

And Just Like That is available to stream on HBO Max. Here’s how to watch it for free.

Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell by Amy Sohn

For more about And Just Like That and Sex and the City, read HBO’s official companion book, Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell. The book, written by dating columnist and screenwriter Amy Sohn, is filled with behind-the-scenes secrets from Sex and the City‘s six seasons and details on the real-life stories that inspired the show’s shocking episodes. The book also includes 750 full-color photographs from filming the series, as well as an introduction written by none other than Sarah Jessica Parker. With fun facts on how many dates Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda really went on to never-been-told secrets about Carrie’s most outrageous (and fabulous) outfits, Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell is a must-read for any SATC superfan.

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