One of the most anticipated TV moments of 2023 is almost upon us, when Kim Cattrall makes her triumphant return to the Sex And The City franchise.
Kim’s cameo in the And Just Like That season finale has been one of the worst-kept secrets in telly, with the Emmy-nominated actor set to reprise her role of Samantha Jones in one brief scene in the forthcoming episode.
But what exactly do we know about Samantha’s return? How did it all come to be? And what should we expect? Here’s everything we know about it so far...
First of all, how come Kim Cattrall hasn’t been in And Just Like That at all so far?
Rumours of a feud on the set of Sex And The City date back to around two decades ago when the award-winning original show was still on the air.
However, in more recent years, Kim Cattrall has spoken more unfavourably about her former colleague Sarah Jessica Parker in public, while also claiming she’d “never been friends” with any of her co-stars.
In 2017, it was reported that plans for a third Sex And The City film had been axed because of Kim’s supposed “demands”, which she refuted on Twitter, insisting: “The only ‘DEMAND’ I ever made was that I didn’t want to do a third film... and that was back in 2016.”
A year later, during an interview with Piers Morgan, Kim once again made it clear she was done playing Samantha, so when reboot And Just Like That was finally confirmed in 2021, it came as no great surprise to fans to see the central four were now down to just three.
Kim eventually also confirmed to Variety that she was unhappy with the direction the writers wanted to take Samantha in, including a storyline she described as “heartbreaking” which would have seen her receive unsolicited explicit photos from Brady, Miranda’s 14-year-old son.
How has the show addressed Samantha Jones’ absence?
And Just Like That wasted no time in addressing the elephant in the room, with the main characters explaining in the very first scene that Samantha had relocated to London.
Over the course of the first series, it emerged the move came following a falling out with Carrie, which arose when the former sex columnist fired Samantha as her book publicist.
As the episodes continued, viewers saw how Carrie’s life was affected by the fall-out as they exchanged short conversations over text. The pair eventually settled their differences in person… albeit in an off-screen moment while Carrie was in Paris.
Compared to the first season, Samantha has been mentioned only fleetingly, and Carrie’s text messages with her pal are now largely a thing of the past.
So, what’s the story of Kim Cattrall’s return as Samantha?
In June 2023, it was first leaked to Variety that Kim had filmed a brief cameo in character as Samantha for the season two finale.
According the outlet, she filmed her cameo in New York in March, and had no contact with either her former colleagues or And Just Like That’s showrunner, Michael Patrick King, with whom Kim worked on Sex And The City.
Interestingly, former Sex And The City costume designer Patricia Field also returned to style Kim in her one scene, having not been part of the revival until now.
Kim later confirmed the reports were true with a very camp post in honour of Pride month:
Meanwhile, And Just Like That’s own Evan Handler – who plays Charlotte’s husband Harry Goldenblatt – claimed that Kim’s cameo was “shot in the garage somewhere with no contact with anybody”.
Reports also claimed that Kim’s cameo would be as part of a phone conversation with Carrie, which a recently-released teaser appeared to confirm would be the case.
What has Kim Cattrall had to say about it all?
During an interview on The View, Kim claimed she’d made the decision to return for the one-off cameo after getting an “interesting” call from the head of HBO, the broadcaster behind Sex And The City and And Just Like That, who asked her: “What can we do?”
Kim continued: “And I went, ‘hmmm… let me get creative’.”
She also told the panel that one of her stipulations was that she’d be styled by Patricia Field, claiming: “I just thought, ‘if I’m going to come back, I’ve got to come back with that sort of Samantha style. I’ve got to push it’. And we did!”
Kim later told The Today Show: “We went shopping at Bergdorf’s, we got a great freaking outfit… so [filming the cameo] felt like dipping my toe back in time and having a wonderful afternoon. And then a great martini.”
And what about the rest of the cast?
True to form, Sarah Jessica Parker has been nothing but glowing about Kim Cattrall’s impending return to the franchise – although she has made it clear the whole team was gutted when it leaked to the press.
“Samantha is present in season one and more so in season two via text. It was just a nice nod to the 25 years [of Sex And The City] to add the face to the text,” SJP explained to Entertainment Weekly.
“And it’s a really opportune moment in the story, [a] consequential event happening in Carrie’s life, that Samantha rings and they have this quick, lovely, sentimental, funny call.
“And it just feels normal and really nice, and I’m glad that we could manage it and work it out and get it sorted time-wise and schedule-wise.”
Kristin Davis agreed: “The fans miss Samantha. The fans love Samantha. Samantha’s a fantastic character. We get it. It seemed like something that would be great to do.”
How likely is it that Kim Cattrall will return as Samantha again in the future?
We’d say… extremely unlikely. Not only has Kim been busier than ever as of late – lending her voice to the TV spin-off How I Met Your Father and appearing in shows like Queer As Folk and Netflix’s Glamorous – she recently claimed her cameo is “as far as I’m going to go”.
Interestingly, Cynthia Nixon also warned fans not to set their expectations too high when reports of Kim’s one-off return first surfaced.
“I worry that with all the build-up people are going to wonder what all the fuss was about,” she told the Sunday Times. “It’s important to know that it is a very brief, very small cameo.”
That being said, Kim insisted she didn’t think she’d “ever say goodbye to Samantha” fully, and we never thought we’d even get to see as much as a two-minute cameo, so you never know what the future holds.
Where do things stand in And Just Like That in the lead-up to the season two finale?
The season two finale has been split into two, with the second half seeing Carrie finally hosting a lavish dinner, referred to as the “last supper”, in her old apartment before selling it to her neighbour Lisette.
Carrie previously told Aidan, with whom she’s recently reunited, that she’d keep a seat empty for him at the event, after his previous claims he never wanted to set foot in her apartment again.
Meanwhile there’s also plenty of awkwardness ahead as the dinner marks the first time Che and Miranda will have seen each other since that uncomfortable stand-up set.
Quite where Samantha fits into it all remains to be seen. Does she want to give Carrie a message on her last night in her apartment? Is she filling that empty seat? Is she just a big fan of Che Diaz and their “comedy concerts”? We’ve no idea, but we’re looking forward to finding out all the same.
Is there a trailer for the And Just Like That season finale?
There certainly is – give it a watch below:
Oh and one last thing. How can we actually watch the And Just Like That season finale?
It will be available to watch on Thursday 24 August at 9pm on Sky Showcase, or stream on Now from Thursday morning.