Once we learned that "Sex and the City" was coming back without Samantha in a new series on HBO Max, we couldn't help but wonder what had happened to Kim Cattrall's character.
Amid all the fan theories, we now have one more official clue about how the writers plan to explain Cattrall's absence. TVLine spoke with Casey Bloys, the HBO Max chief content officer about the sequel series, "And Just Like That," and he offered a hint about what happened to Samantha.
"They’re not trying to re-do Sex and the City,” Bloys told TVLine. “They’re not trying to say that these characters are reliving their 30s. It is very much a story about women in their 50s, and they are dealing with things that people deal with in their 50s.”
He added that “just as in real life, people come into your life, people leave."
“Friendships fade, and new friendships start. So I think it is all very indicative of the real stages, the actual stages of life…" he said. "They’re trying to tell an honest story about being a woman in her 50s in New York. So it should all feel somewhat organic, and the friends that you have when you’re 30, you may not have when you’re 50.”
After the news broke that Samantha would not be returning to the reprisal of the show, disappointed fans brainstormed several possible outcomes for her character. While one common TV plot move would be to kill her off, that didn't sit well with many fans.
Some Twitter users suggested it would be much better if the sassy character was busy traveling the world, living her best life, while others pointed out Samantha could move back to Los Angeles and check in with her friends when she had time.
"I really don't want or think Samantha should be dead," @jennjaypal wrote. "I hope Samantha is traveling the world and keeps in touch when she can but is just not involved in the every day plotline of these women's current lives."
This week, as news circulated that Samantha and the other "Sex and the City" women had stopped being friends in the show, many people weren't surprised but didn't love the solution.
"Sex and the City's revival will explain Samantha's absence by saying she's simply no longer friends with Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte according to HBO," Jarett Wieselman posted. "Which, honestly, feels like the worst possible choice."
