by Sex and the City created by Michael Patrick King and produced by Home Box Office (HBO) production house is gearing up for the spin-off series, set to hit the screens on December 9 but without Mr Big. Spoiler alert, but Chris Noth who has owned the character of Mr Big for over 10 seasons and 2 movie sequels will no longer be making a comeback to the sets despite being such a huge success with the show.
Fans have expressed gross disappointment when the writers and the creators of the show announced that Mr Big’s character would be written off in the first episode itself after suffering from a heart attack. However Michael Patrick King has tried to put a band aid over the initial disappointment by saying Chris Noth might be brought in at least for a small portion in the later episodes of the spin-off series. He went on record to say that his character plays a big role in the series and they couldn’t manage without him since it would affect the entire storyline.
“If Chris wouldn’t do Big again, then we wouldn’t have come back,” King, 67, told reporters on Friday, December 10. “I wouldn’t have done it without him because that story line affects the entire series.”
SATC which premiered around 2000 and chronicles 4 American women in their 30s juggling work and dating life with New York as their muse, stars Sarah Jessica Parker as the protagonist Carrie Bradshaw along with Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon. In the spin-off, Samantha Jones or Kim Cattrall won’t be making a return due to fundamental differences with the script and production. Killing off Mr Big’s character would undoubtedly create a big hole, a lack of something in the show as noted by Miranda Hobbes, Cynthia Nixon’s character in the second episode of “And just like that…” but the actor was pretty on-board with the overall course of the script. So much so that when King wrote a fake scene for him and SJP to re-enact, they put on costumes for the same.
King explained, “We’re both very happy with the daring choice to have Mr. Big come back and go, so much so that he even put on a suit and came to the funeral when we were taping, and I wrote a fake scene, so he and Sarah Jessica put on costumes. He said to me, ‘You really want me to put a face of makeup on and come down and shoot a fictional scene at my funeral?’ I go, ‘Yeah,’ because I really wanted the audience to be as surprised as possible before we did it. And that was one of the red herrings that we threw into the mix. “
He then went onto praise the actor for his approachable and easy going demeanour saying, “He’s great. And he’s great in the show. I mean, if you’re going to die that’s the episode to die in.”
Big’s character suffers a sudden heart attack post a workout session in the first episode, titled “Hello it’s me”, where after riding the Peloton cycle he makes his way to the shower but drops down clutching his left arm, while Carrie and her friends are attending Lily York Goldenblatt’s piano recital. Carrie’s voiceover breaks the silence and shocks the audience with “And just like that, Big died.”
The second episode set to hit the screens on 12 December mostly shows Carrie dealing with the funeral preparations while grappling with grief.
SATC however did lose one of it’s side characters, rather the actor who played the character Stanford Blatch, Willie Garson. Willie passed away at 57, on September 22, after a long and arduous battle from pancreatic cancer. He was set for returning to the sets of the reboot for a big role but then the script had to be improvised.
