This Is Not A Drill — And Just Like That Season 2 Will Include A Kim Cattrall Cameo

It would be an understatement at this point to say And Just Like That — the long-awaited, highly-anticipated Sex and the City reboot — was controversial. From the moment the series premiered on HBO Max on Dec. 9 to its finale on Feb. 3, it proved to be a lightning rod for charged conversations surrounding sex (and gender), race, aging, sociopolitics, parenting, and, yes, fashion. The show also managed to be surprisingly mired in drama for a quote-unquote new series, largely due to the glaring absence of Kim Cattrall (Samantha Jones) and the sexual assault allegations against Chris Noth (Mr. Big) that came to light early in the season.

With so much working against it, the average viewer might easily assume And Just Like That Season 2 would be a non-starter. But long-time fans of Carrie Bradshaw and her crew ~needed~ a second season, if for no other reason than to prove our fictional best friends can do better than this freshman effort.

Fortunately, And Just Like That has been greenlit for another season, with HBO Max and others involved in the production (including Carrie Bradshaw herself: star-slash-executive producer Sarah Jessica Parker) weighing in. And not only will the first two episodes be released in June, but a shocking new revelation about Samantha Jones is practically guaranteed to keep fans tuning in through the finale.

Here’s everything we know so far about what the future holds for the nostalgia-driven show. Warning: Spoiler alerts about Season 1 of And Just Like That ahead!

When will And Just Like That Season 2 drop?

As predicted, the second season will arrive in the early summer of 2023. According to HBO, “The eleven-episode second season of the Max Original series And Just Like That, from executive producer Michael Patrick King, will debut with two episodes on Thursday, June 22, on Max. The following nine episodes will premiere weekly on Thursdays.”

When was And Just Like That renewed?

On March 22, HBO Max announced the sequel series will, in fact, return for a sophomore season. Sarah Aubrey, Head of Original Content at HBO Max, celebrated the news, saying, “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,” Aubrey said. “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!”

Wait, is Samantha coming back?!

And Just Like That is already given us a shocking plot twist, and Season 2 hasn’t even arrived yet! On May 31, Variety broke the news that Kim Cattrall will once again reprise her iconic role as Samantha Jones. And while that’s exciting (obviously), fans should temper their expectations. Cattrall will reportedly only appear in one scene — and it would appear that she isn’t ready to mend fences with her co-stars just yet.

“According to sources, Cattrall shot her dialogue on March 22 in New York City, without seeing or speaking with the stars of the series, including Sarah Jessica Parker, or with And Just Like That showrunner Michael Patrick King,” reports Variety, noting that Samantha will appear having a phone conversation with Carrie in the scene.

So, it’s not a full Sam Jones comeback... but we’ll take what we can get for now.

And what’s this we hear about Aidan and Carrie reuniting?

Prior to the premiere date announcement, the hottest development in the series’ teasers turned out to be some very exciting first-look photos revealing that John Corbett, aka Carrie’s ex-fiancé Aidan Shaw, is coming back into the mix. Is this the Carrie and Aidan reunion we’ve been dreaming of?! The pair look pretty cozy in the pics. And is it just us, or is Aidan — dressed in purple slacks and a leather bomber jacket — looking much more, um, fashionable?

SJP herself has been hinting this will be a welcome development for longtime fans of the series. In a recent interview with Extra’s Adam Glassman, Parker implied that Carrie and Aidan coming back together is definitely a good thing — although it’s still unclear in what capacity he’ll be returning to her life. “It’s so nice,” Parker said of filming with Corbett again. “It’s so happy. He brings a lot of joy.”

She added, “He’s a kind of preternaturally happy person and he’s so excited to be back, and it’s an amazing storyline that Michael [Patrick King] and the writers have sorted out, and I think will be really meaningful to the audience who feel a lot of affection for him.”

When pressed for more details, Parked remained coy. “I can’t say anything except, it’s just really great to be in his company again and to have a storyline, though, that is also happy and fun and familiar,” she teased.

Which other cast members will we see again?

Count Parker in! “Definitely, yeah,” she told Variety when asked if she’d slip back into Carrie Bradshaw’s Manolos for a second installment. “It always felt exciting to play Carrie. To consider doing it again and to be on the set, it felt really good.”

Kristin Davis (Charlotte York Goldenblatt) made it clear early after Season 1 that she’d love to return, too. “The Rose [who now goes by Rock] journey is going to be a long one. It’s probably not something that’s going to have a distinct end with this season, at least,” she told Vanity Fair. “Hopefully, we’ll get to come back, and you’ll see what ends up happening with Rose.”

Cynthia Nixon will return as Miranda Hobbes, David Eigenberg as Steve Brady, Niall Cunningham as Brady Hobbes, Evan Handler as Harry Goldenblatt, Cathy Ang and Alexa Swinton as Lily and Rose Goldenblatt, and Mario Cantone as Anthony Marentino for And Just Like That Season 2.

In addition to those OGs, HBO has since confirmed Sara Ramírez will return as Che Diaz, Sarita Choudhury as Seema Patel, Nicole Ari Parker as Lisa Todd Wexley, Christopher Jackson as Herbert Wexley, and Karen Pittman as Dr. Nya Wallace.

From the trailer, we also know that Carrie’s bed-buddy-slash-podcast-producer Franklyn (Ivan Hernandez) will appear in some capacity.

Who’ll be missing?

As for who wouldn’t be in And Just Like That Season 2, there’s Noth, first and foremost. Between his character being written off and the sexual assault allegations against him (which he has denied), he probably wouldn’t even appear in flashbacks.

Kim Cattrall returning as Samantha Jones will likely (still) never happen. Despite Cattrall airing many negative feelings over the years towards Parker, her other castmates, and the production as a whole, And Just Like That managed to work Samantha in via text messages throughout the season. And while the audience never got to see Samantha in person, Carrie even met up with her (offscreen) when she traveled to Paris to dump Big’s ashes off “their bridge.” While fans hoped the seeming Carrie-Samantha reconciliation meant a Parker-Cattrall reconciliation could be in the stars, that doesn’t look like something that’s going to happen — at least not publicly, and not in a way that would bring Cattrall back to the series in person. Plus, King straight up said he had “no realistic expectation of Kim Cattrall ever appearing again.” So, there’s that.

So far, there hasn’t been confirmation of return cameos from Rabbi Jen (Hari Nef) and Natasha Naginsky-Mills (Bridget Moynahan), as well as Dr. Nya Wallace’s husband Andre (LeRoy McClain).

And finally, our beloved Stanford Blatch will forever be off cavorting the globe with the influencer he left NYC to manage — actor Willie Garson tragically passed away from pancreatic cancer while filming Season 1. It goes without saying he will be deeply missed in all his forms.

What will And Just Like That Season 2 be about?

Well, let’s start by saying they’re definitely going to have to address the whole Che-Miranda-Steve debacle. Fans expressed a fair amount of outrage over Steve’s treatment in Season 1, so maybe he gets a love interest? And new hearing aids, so he isn’t always going, “Huh? What??” When we left her, newly naive Miranda was abandoning a coveted internship to fly to L.A. and be with Che while they filmed their pilot. Whether that implodes or thrives remains to be seen, but it will surely play out in Season 2.

Charlotte, as Davis hinted, would continue to grapple with being a modern mom of teens. Carrie, well, everyone obviously needs to see more of the relationship between her and Franklyn that led to that explosive elevator kiss in the Season 1 finale, although we’re all clearly dying to see where Aidan fits into her post-Big love life, too.

And all of the new characters’ stories would likely expand, which we already saw a hint of with Seema and her new fling Zed (played by William Abadie). Could Dr. Nya Wallace become pregnant, or will the epiphany that she may not want kids derail her dreamy relationship with her husband? As for LTW, just give us more, please!