'Sex and the City' fans are wondering the fate of Samantha after SJP confirms 'Next Chapter'

Since the show debuted over 20 years ago, Sex and the City (stream now on Crave) has been a cultural touchstone for 30-something women owning their sexuality and discussing it frankly over brunch and cosmopolitans. Carrie was the heart of the show, Miranda was the feminist, Charlotte was the dreamer, and Samantha (as Mr. Big once put it) was trouble. That’s what we loved about the brazen vixen, played by Canadian Kim Cattrall. But after six fabulous seasons, two kinda-meh movies (which you can watch here and here), and even a prequel, it looks like SATC is getting a revival called And Just Like That (which will be available on Crave in Canada). But we couldn’t help but wonder . . . where’s Samantha Jones?

Kim Cattrall was very vocal a few years ago about the poor treatment she felt she received from Sarah Jessica Parker on set, even going so far as to admonish SJP on social media (“You are not my family. You are not my friend”). She also refused to sign on to a potential third movie that was in the works because, as she put it, everyone knew she didn’t want to continue, and she wanted to move on with her life. We can’t fault her for that—it seems perfectly reasonable. So when SJP posted a teaser trailer for the reboot on her Instagram, the twitter speculation abounded. How are they going to explain Sammy Jo’s absence?

The teaser trailer doesn’t contain any scenes or even a glimpse of the characters. It’s just shots of Manhattan interspliced with a computer screen cursor typing out the words “And just like that…” and “the story continues” with SJP’s voice over. But looking at the comments on her Instagram, she replies to many fan questions about Samantha, even confirming, “Samantha isn’t part of this story. But she will always be part of us. No matter where we are or what we do.”

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Some fans tried to offer recasting suggestions, and some tried to picture storylines where Samantha perhaps gets COVID-19 (that’ll bring SATC into 2021!) or even her cancer comes back. But most of the tweets were from fans very frankly telling SJP and crew that, sorry, the show just doesn’t work without Samantha. She is the “sex” in Sex and the City!

The social media reactions reached a fever pitch; so much so that “Samantha” and “Kim Cattrall” have both been trending topics since Sunday night and into Monday morning. One thing’s for sure – we love our SATC and will protect it fiercely. So while we are super excited about this reboot (which has no announced premiere date, and won’t begin filming until the spring), when the time comes we will also binge watch it whilst gossiping about the character choices in our What’s App groups.

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