‘Some sort of universal magic shifted’: Michael Patrick King on Kim Cattrall reprising her role as Samantha Jones in ‘And Just Like That’

Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones may have felt that all of the relationships she knew were based upon the foundation of “lies and mutually accepted delusions,” but her return to the Sex and the City realm in season two of And Just Like That is giving us hope that some of those delusions can turn into a path forward for friends gone astray.

News broke just weeks ago that Cattrall would have a cameo in the upcoming season of the iconic spinoff, and writer/director Michael Patrick King says that there was a magic element to her series return. King told People that, in his mind, Samantha was always a piece of the puzzle.

“I have always had Samantha Jones in And Just Like That. In my consciousness and in my writing, in all of her writing, she’s always been in London and texting. I was like, ‘Samantha lives, so let’s keep her alive for me, the writer, for Carrie, for Miranda, for Charlotte and for the audience.'”

It did feel like Samantha was still involved in the story, despite her not being around for the happenings of And Just Like That. She wasn’t at Big’s funeral with the girls; she didn’t sit with Carrie in her heartache, and she is unaware of the significant shifts happening in Charlotte and Miranda’s lives.

Speaking of shifts, King wonders if there was some otherworldly one that took place to make Cattrall want to reprise her role as Samantha, and whatever you want to call it, we’re glad it’s happening.

“I don’t know what happened, because we didn’t start the season thinking this. Some sort of universal magic shifted. I don’t know whether the fans manifested this. I don’t know what happened. Maybe something about the 25th anniversary brought a lot of energy forward, and all of a sudden Kim was like, ‘All right, I’ll make a stop by.'”

It’s easy enough to see a name appear on the phone alongside a text and imagine the person on the other end of the phone, but hearing her voice and realizing that she’s actually a part of this season is far preferable to having to use our imaginations to imagine her via the one text we see from her, or having to infer her emotions via flowers she sent to be draped over Big’s coffin.

And Just Like That season two kicks off this Thursday on Max.