Will Chris Noth return to the ‘Sex and the City’ revival as Mr. Big or what?

A STILL FROM "SEX AND THE CITY"..........

Last week, there was a confirmation about the Sex and the City revival, which will be coming out on HBO Max this year. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon all signed on, with Kim Cattrall continuing to say that she had no interest in revisiting Samantha Jones. I worried about all of the hideous ways they would write out the Sam Jones character, but as HBO Max’s chief content officer revealed in an interview, they’re not going to kill off Sam or make her MAGA. It will just be a “faded friendship.”

HBO Max’s upcoming revival, officially announced last month, is bringing back the stars of the original Emmy-winning hit — minus Kim Cattrall’s Samantha. But how will the show explain the absence of one of the show’s core four? Star Sarah Jessica Parker and writer Michael Patrick King are the creative forces behind the sequel, and “they’re not trying to re-do Sex and the City,” HBO Max chief content officer Casey Bloys emphasizes to 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.”

To that end, “just as in real life, people come into your life, people leave,” Bloys continues. “Friendships fade, and new friendships start. So I think it is all very indicative of the real stages, the actual stages of life… 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.”

[From TV Line]

I think that’s very realistic, although I wonder if Michael Patrick King and SJP considered other options and HBO Max told them to tone it down. Honestly, if one “friend” was going to leave the group, I always assumed it would be Miranda. Right? Miranda moved to Brooklyn, she’s a mom, she works a full-time job and eventually she would have realized that Carrie is a narcissistic monster. But sure, I guess Sam was the one who realized that. Anyway, I’ve wanted to talk about that for a week, and now we have even more information about the revival: Mr. Big won’t be on the show either. WTF.

Some “Sex and the City” enthusiasts better get ready for a Big disappointment. Page Six has learned that Chris Noth will not reprise his role as the iconic Mr. Big in the “Sex and the City” reboot.

We’re also told that David Eigenberg, who played Miranda Hobbes’s love interest, Steve Brady, won’t be returning either but a rep told Page Six on Thursday that the actor is in negotiations to appear in the series.

[From Page Six]

Honestly, I’d been feeling sort of ambivalent about this revival anyway, and I was just going to watch it out of morbid curiosity, but now I’m not so sure? No Sam, no Big, and probably no Steve? COME ON. If Miranda and Steve split up, that character won’t work at all, frankly. And what will Carrie do without Big? They are both terrible people who deserve each other. Sigh.

Oh, and a few days after this story came out, Chris Noth hinted that he might come back after all. A cameo, perhaps?

SARAH JESSICA PARKER FILMING 'SEX AND THE CITY: THE MOVIE'

41027PCN_SexCity14

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.

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36 Responses to “Will Chris Noth return to the ‘Sex and the City’ revival as Mr. Big or what?”

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  1. Tiffany says:

    The only one who would still be married and have viable marriages at this point, I think would be Miranda and Charlotte. Carrie and Big would be living separate lives because Carrie would be in straight denial and refuse to divorce the man who cheated on her the same way he cheated on his previous two wives. She is too much of a social climber to allow a divorce to happen. Being Mrs. Preston gets prime seating everywhere.

    • Joan Rivers says:

      I dunno. Do you Samantha fans think she would be that great to watch NOW?
      In 2021? That’s your idea of an exciting woman?
      You just pretend LIFE and the PANDEMIC haven’t happened?
      I’m curious. Is she just a gay image of what a white woman could be?

  2. Rapunzel says:

    Big was a good guy in the movies… and Carrie treated him horribly. Wouldn’t be surprised if they divorced.

    Sam just faded out of the friend group? That’s… an interesting choice. Would’ve been better to have her cancer reappear and kill her. Having her fade out just makes the others look like bad friends. Which they are, kinda, but it doesn’t have to be obvious.

    This reboot is going to be horrid.

    • Tiffany says:

      I can see it as Sam having the cancer come back and having a Come To Jesus moment with how truly selfish Carrie is and knowing that she could not have one (Charlotte and Miranda) without the other (Carrie), she would just move on.

      This is a woman who had no problem up and moving to California. It might not have worked out, but she gave it a go and ain’t afraid to try.

    • ElleV says:

      I dunno – I don’t subscribe to the idea that you are a bad friend if you move in different directions when interests/geography/energy/family/careers change. I think it’s a sign of a good friendship if it can ebb and flow with both parties wishing each other well.

      On the other hand, most of the *bad* friendships I’ve known involved people who were trying to maintain something they’d outgrown or didn’t have the bandwidth for and resented each other for it.

      (all that said – Carrie IS a bad friend lol)

    • Hardbackbooks says:

      They won’t kill off Sam because SJP is holding onto the idea that Kim might be convinced to come back when they’re aged 90, 100 for yet another reboot! Oh, sorry, “revisit.”

    • Grant says:

      Big was a good guy in the movies? He literally left Carrie at the altar and then told her he wanted to live separately in the sequel.

      • Rapunzel says:

        Grant- um…yes. He left because she turned their wedding into a circus he didn’t want and had clearly told her didn’t want. And he was coming back.

        The live separate thing was because his whiny wife got pissed at his thoughtful gift which would have promoted togetherness, kissed another guy, and then insisted she needed her apartment for space.

  3. (TheOG) Jan90067 says:

    Seeing a group of self-absorbed, middle aged women trying SO HARD to hang onto what they were in their youth…(because let’s face it, it’s STILL going to be about their sex lives)… no thanks. I live in LA. I can go outside, walk by any cafe, and hear it (well.. pre-Covid, but you know what I mean!).

    • Seraphina says:

      TheOG, I completely agree. This is a show of a by-gone era. With all we have gone through in the last year, SATC seems so frivolous and out of touch. Those who watched have grown and evolved.

    • ElleV says:

      Absolutely – we all have bigger problems now – even the self absorbed middle aged ladies got COVID to contend with

    • Mac says:

      TV has really evolved since SATC. A show about three wealthy white women just isn’t as compelling as the many other great shows available now.

    • luna says:

      Why can’t it be about their sex lives? Let mature women have/enjoy casual sex/dating too! I would love to hear about successful women in their 50s living and dating in NY. Not that I think I’ll see this this mess.

      Although the first season of SATC was really good. I think what SJP brought to the table (fashion, love-obsessedness, narcissism) is more clear after season 1 and maybe that’s why the show got more popular/audience directed – and more shittier honestly. Without that, single women in their 50s, bring it in.

    • Eenie Googles says:

      Well…it’s called SEX and the City… And middle aged women shouldn’t have to shut up about their sex lives or risk being seen as “desperate to hang on to their youth”. (What a cruel comment that was).

      Middle aged women have sex.

      It’s my opinion that sthe show jumped the shark when it stopped being a fun show about sex and dating and started turning everything into a basic bitch soap opera, with celeb cameos and cancer, and grand moves to Paris and teary declarations of friendship blah blah blah

    • Anilehcim says:

      To be fair, they weren’t all self absorbed. Carrie was self absorbed. Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte had some real standout moments where they showed selflessness and true friendship to each other and their shitty self-obsessed friend Carrie. The fact that any of us used to watch the show and actually like Carrie is something that baffles a lot of people looking back on the original run, including me.

  4. chimes@midnight says:

    Plot twist: Chris Noth does indeed return but he is playing Detective Mike Logan, not Mr. Big.

    (he will always be Mike Logan to me)

    • Kaiser says:

      OMG, a crossover I could get behind!! Law & Order: Fashion Disaster Unit

    • smcollins says:

      Lol that would be AH-Mazing! But maybe Big will turn up in a cameo and not as a central character this time around. I mean Big was such a huge part of SATC and Carrie’s story (he WAS her story), he has to be in there somewhere (hopefully).

    • Deering24 says:

      Hee. He’s playing Queen Latifah’s ex-CIA handler over on The Equalizer these days. 😉

  5. Noki says:

    From such a successful show these actresses barely managed to really make it big. Kristen Davis has barely appeared in anything. SJP really should have had a similar career to Jennifer Aniston,Reese Witherspoon etc

    • Oy_Hey says:

      And I think this is the real thrust of why this “revival” is happening. Some of the men of the show, even one off characters, have had better post show prospects than most of the leading ladies, including SJP. Her early career was hot. She was supposed to be this big “thing” and it just never happened.

      Say what you want about Kim Cattrall but she’s been steady working in TV, Movies, and commercials since this hot mess ended. Her post STC show, Sensitive Skin, wasn’t a huge ratings hit but it was well reviewed age appropriate show that had a dedicated following.

      Not so for the others. The biggest thing that any of them have done was Nixon unsuccessfully running for NY governor and getting us all stuck with Cuomo (again) when most downstate folks here have wanted him replaced with a real progressive for 5+ years.

      STC is over – its been over. It ended with that sad whimper of a second movie. Let it go. If we’re rebooting fun female oriented stuff that still has things to say ask Tracee Ellis Ross to reboot Girlfriends in the age of BLM and MeToo. That’s interesting. This…this is just sad.

      • Tiffany says:

        Sarah could have had that, but the obsession with making everything she does SATC adjacent is what did her in.

        Nixon went back to Broadway and was still doing her advocacy work with NY Public Schools. Why she decided to run against Cuomo is beyond me.

        Kristen, I just don’t know what to say. She was in the process of adopting her 1st child and then adopted another child and that is time and emotionally consuming. I see her pop up on the tv and a kids movie now and then.

  6. Astrid says:

    I”m enjoying the gossip around the new show but there’s no way I”m watching it.

  7. smcollins says:

    Ummmm….Steve hasn’t been Miranda’s “love interest” since season 2(?). He’s her husband & father of their son. Show some respect Page Six 😉

  8. Coco says:

    Big killed Samantha, so now he’s offscreen in prison.

  9. Anilehcim says:

    This movie is going to be the head in the road for me; I’ll look, but I won’t like it. Both movies were awful and this is definitely, without a doubt, an unnecessary addition.

    It’s always so funny to me how everyone adored Carrie back in the day but we all collectively agree she was the worst now looking back. To be honest, if they ever made a movie that covered the relationships between the other women, I would be interested in that. Some of the absolute BEST moments of the entire series involved the deep friendship between the women and Carrie wasn’t involved at all. The time Miranda found out she was pregnant after Charlotte found out she was infertile and Charlotte didn’t want to talk, so Miranda silently walked behind her the whole way home— makes me cry EVERY time. THAT is a friendship. I would take a show or movie about that kind of friendship over Carrie’s self centered bullshit any day.

    • Grant says:

      I so agree with this. I feel like SATC was at its best when Carrie wasn’t the focal point at all. Charlotte, Miranda, and Samantha were so much more compelling. I remember another episode where Miranda’s mother dies suddenly (it was the same episode where Carrie’s computer crashes and she acts like a spoiled brat even though SHE [writer] never thought to back anything up–WHAT?!?!). Charlotte steps up to the plate and plans everything. Samantha can’t find the words to express her sympathies to Miranda until they’re all at the funeral, awkwardly avoiding Miranda in the interim and losing her org*sm in the process. She finally mouths the words “I’m sorry” to Miranda at the funeral and proceeds to break down in Charlotte’s arms. That was peak SATC for me.

  10. Leskat says:

    Who, HONESTLY, asked for this?!?! Is there genuinely someone out there who gives and effs about these characters and what’s going on in their lives now? And this is coming from someone who still owns the DVDs and even went to a last show viewing party at a club where Chris Noth was the special guest. These characters are tired, the storylines are played out and with all the amazing shows out there now, why beat this horse to a pulp? I obviously won’t be watching 🙂

  11. BearcatLawyer says:

    When SATC started on HBO, I enjoyed it. It was definitely edgy and different and light years apart from network TV comedies.

    But watching *edited* reruns on E! sometimes …whew. Just wow. Times have changed, and thank God they changed for the better. I am semi-embarrassed that I used to think SATC was a great TV show. Other than the fashion, I have zero interest in it anymore.

    I watched both movies on HBO (because I heard neither was particularly compelling), and afterwards I felt well and truly done with SATC. Why they feel the need to reprise it, I will never know. The only way I would even think about watching it is if the reviews indicated that all of the returning characters showed growth, maturity, and positive life changes that made them more interesting people than they were in the past. But given SJP is heavily involved in producing it, I imagine it will be whiny, self-involved, and boring.

    I think it is best to just cherish the memory instead of trying to relive or recreate it. But I guess that does not make money, right?

  12. Hardbackbooks says:

    Sarah Jessica Parker is attached to the character and probably is listening to the most hardcore of SATC fans in wanting to do this. She was doing interviews after third film failed to get the go-ahead because Kim wasn’t interested (smart woman) whinging about how the script was so relatable and touching but now the fans would be deprived of seeing it.

    They also got Michael Patrick King to do a podcast and put the blame on Kim Cattrall for the third film not getting go-ahead and for not joining the SATC “family” and “going into the light” in recognising SJP was THE STAR like Cynthia and Kristin did during the series. Could you get language that’s more manipulative from someone who should have been an objective advocate for all cast members, in a professional workplace that should never have been seen as a “family” environment? He literally described Kristin and Cynthia’s resignation to very unequal pay as “going into the light.” Shame on MPK! Adds credence to Kim’s claims though.

    Chris Noth said he didn’t like the two films because they were too sentimental. But he said he’s do a third film because he was a “team player.” I’m guessing he probably didn’t want to come back for a series but would be happy to do a cameo. He’s been working steadily so doesn’t really need the money.

    The three women are being paid the same and getting producing credits for this. Still don’t get why Kristin and Cynthia were happy with their paltry pay on the films and original series. Should have worked with Kim and negotiated equal pay. SJP was never a big movie star or a serious character actor. How she managed to secure $3.2 million while the other women got 350K each per episode remains a mystery to me.

    Jimmy Fowlie on YT does a great summary (send-up) of SJP’s acting range. Very funny.

  13. Zatfig&Kitty says:

    There’s an episode of 30 Rock where they send up the SATC dynamic (season 6 episode 4) and it’s PERFECT. Liz tries to make new friends and comes across “the girls” and it’s mainly the Carrie clone saying “aww, SWeEtiE!!” over and over. Then they reminisce about singing “Respect” at karaoke and Liz shuts it down and calls them horrible.

  14. NYC_Girl says:

    The entire premise was relevant 20 years ago. As a 52 year old, I don’t have any interest in their antics from back then. I WILL say I didn’t see the films. Big’s behavior on the show was horrible, and Carrie’s wasn’t much better. He was especially awful, and that kind of jerk will NEVER rescue you in Paris. He WILL ditch you at the altar. I got involved with a jerky guy in my 30s but thankfully it only lasted a few months. If I had any advice to give, women shouldn’t tolerate sh*tty, ambivalent, narcissitic, behavior. Nobody should, really.

  15. Amando says:

    It makes sense that Sam wouldn’t fit in with the ladies’ lives anymore given her eternal single, no-children status. I’m feeling that way now at 40 – single and no kids while all my close friends are now married and having families. It’s natural to grow apart with different interests and priorities.

    And no, Miranda would not have turned her back on Carrie. Miranda was always fighting against being “that person” who turns her back on what and who she loved before marriage and children.

    That said, I hope Mr Big is in the series and they are still together. Don’t ruin it HBO!