If there’s one major question that’s been hanging over HBO Max’s upcoming series And Just Like That—you know, besides “Should we really be doing this?”—it’s how the Sex and the City revival is going to explain the absence of Samantha Jones. With original star Kim Cattrall refusing to return to the scene of her character’s early 2000s sexual escapades, that leaves a gaping void that the Internet has been desperate to fill with everyone from Jean Smart to Miss Piggy. (Talk about a Sophie’s Choice!)
On Friday, HBO Max released the first official photo of the show’s three returning stars in character as filming began on the streets of New York. The image shows Sarah Jessica Parker striding down the street as Carrie Bradshaw, flanked on either side by gal pals Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte (Kristen Davis). The ladies look fantastic, if a little…washed out. (I may need a full oral history of the negotiations behind the decision to not have Nixon dye her hair red again!)
The photo also includes a lot of the NYC sidewalk, which the Internet used as its canvas to suggest hypothetical Samantha fill-ins like those mentioned above. But the best by far has to be from writer and comedian H. Alan Scott, who Photoshopped in actor Andrew McCarthy carrying the mannequin played by Cattrall herself in the 1987 romantic comedy Mannequin.
— H. Alan Scott (@HAlanScott) July 9, 2021
Forget every “Best Reactions” list that came before. This is the best And Just Like That meme so far. The image spread far and wide over the weekend, with McCarthy himself even retweeting it, writing “I thought they’d never call.”
I thought they’d never call pic.twitter.com/Fn3OLR09q8
— Andrew McCarthy (@AndrewTMcCarthy) July 11, 2021
And this was just the first day of filming! Nothing’s gonna stop them now…
