Last August, Deadline reported that John Corbett was set to reprise his function of Aidan Shaw for Season 2 of Sex and the City’s sequel sequence, And Just Like That.
In case you didn’t know, Aidan was considered one of Carrie Bradshaw’s two fundamental love pursuits within the SATC franchise, alongside Chris Noth’s Big.
Big was launched within the very first episode of the present again in 1999, whereas Aidan made his debut in Season 3. Carrie’s relationship with Aidan was consistently examined by her lack of ability to maneuver on from Big, who she ultimately cheated on Aidan with.
Then, within the 2010 film Sex and the City 2, Carrie shocked followers when she kissed Aidan after they ran into one another in Abu Dhabi — regardless of her being married to Big by this level.
Big ended up forgiving Carrie for the indiscretion, and this was the final time that we noticed Aidan on our screens. Until this week.
Season 1 of And Just Like That premiered in 2021 and revealed that Carrie and Big had remained collectively within the years for the reason that second film, and have been having fun with a contented marriage.
But tragedy struck on the finish of the primary episode when Big died abruptly of a coronary heart assault, with the remainder of the season exploring Carrie coping with her grief.
In Season 2, nonetheless, Carrie was prepared to maneuver on and reached out to her former lover through e mail in final week’s episode of the present, with John making his much-anticipated return as Aidan on Thursday.
Following the onscreen comeback, And Just Like That’s government producer, Michael Patrick King, opened up about the way in which that he approached John to reprise his notorious function — and he didn’t maintain again.
In truth, Michael informed the actor that earlier than filming started he wanted to have a full makeover, which included getting in form — to which John apparently acknowledged that he had gained weight lately.
“We gave him a makeover,” Michael mentioned on the Writer’s Room podcast. “We cut his hair, we took the turquoise jewelry away, we told him he had to be rock hard when he came back.”
Michael was talking with fellow government producers Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky, and supervising producer Samantha Irby on the time, and after they questioned whether or not that was what Michael had truly mentioned to John, he doubled down.
“No, it’s true, I said it to John, John knows,” he informed them. “He was eating fried chicken when I told him and he dropped the fried chicken on the plate and fell down in the booth that we were sitting in and said: ‘I knew I was a fatty.’”
But the actor dutifully took Michael’s notes on board, with the showrunner including: “Then he came back rock hard with short hair.”
Despite the way it could seem, Michael then insisted that the adjustments to John’s look weren’t for aesthetic causes, arguing: “It’s not an aesthetic choice to come back differently because I thought he was perfection, it was a story choice. If we are bringing somebody back we have to find some way to bring them back in a new way.”
“So here we are now, bringing Aidan back again, and we have tricks up our sleeve as to how he is new and what we can actually do with the storyline considering all the water under the bridge,” he concluded.
And Michael’s podcast friends praised him for the agency stance that he took with John as they acknowledged that historically it’s girls who face stress to alter their look.
“I just want to give Michael Patrick King props,” Elisa started. “You might be among the few showrunners who actually clamp down on men to hit the gym and actually put a little pressure on their appearance, which most women would say tends to fall onto female laps.”
Michael responded by referencing the way in which that girls are the extra sexually empowered characters on And Just Like That and saying: “As I say, we’ve flipped the switch on this show!”
When Aidan’s return was first introduced, not all people was impressed — particularly when photographs of Aidan and Carrie kissing emerged on-line.
The choice to rekindle the outdated romance divided followers, with many mentioning that the connection had already failed a number of instances greater than 20 years in the past.
Others have been upset that Carrie would bounce again to her outdated flame after her husband’s demise, and that Aidan would let her. One remark learn on the time: “he shouldn’t be going back to her just because the man she cheated with died!!!”
But the workforce stood by their choice to deliver Aidan again on the podcast, with Julie saying: “In the discussion about bringing Aidan back for Season 2 of And Just Like That, for me it had to be about what would really happen and I believe it. I think that’s what happens when we are older, especially after a tragedy like Carrie has suffered.”
“Let’s face it, you have fewer and fewer really powerfully strong people in your life who have known you for a long time,” she added. “So I believe that she would have reached out to him.”
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