Final August, Deadline reported that John Corbett was set to reprise his function of Aidan Shaw for Season 2 of Intercourse and the Metropolis’s sequel collection, And Simply Like That.
In case you didn’t know, Aidan was one in all Carrie Bradshaw’s two principal love pursuits within the SATC franchise, alongside Chris Noth’s Massive.
Massive 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 always examined by her lack of ability to maneuver on from Massive, who she finally cheated on Aidan with.
Then, within the 2010 film Intercourse and the Metropolis 2, Carrie shocked followers when she kissed Aidan after they ran into one another in Abu Dhabi — regardless of her being married to Massive by this level.
Massive ended up forgiving Carrie for the indiscretion, and this was the final time that we noticed Aidan on our screens. Till this week.
Season 1 of And Simply Like That premiered in 2021 and revealed that Carrie and Massive had remained collectively within the years because the second film, and had been having fun with a contented marriage.
However tragedy struck on the finish of the primary episode when Massive died instantly of a coronary heart assault, with the remainder of the season exploring Carrie coping with her grief.
In Season 2, nevertheless, Carrie was prepared to maneuver on and reached out to her former lover through electronic 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 Simply Like That’s govt producer, Michael Patrick King, opened up about the best way 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 in recent times.
“We gave him a makeover,” Michael mentioned on the Author’s Room podcast. “We lower his hair, we took the turquoise jewellery away, we informed him he needed to be rock onerous when he got here again.”
Michael was talking with fellow govt 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 really mentioned to John, he doubled down.
“No, it’s true, I mentioned it to John, John is aware of,” he informed them. “He was consuming fried hen once I informed him and he dropped the fried hen on the plate and fell down within the sales space that we had been sitting in and mentioned: ‘I knew I used to be a fatty.’”
However the actor dutifully took Michael’s notes on board, with the showrunner including: “Then he got here again rock onerous with quick hair.”
Regardless of the way it could appear, Michael then insisted that the modifications to John’s look weren’t for aesthetic causes, arguing: “It’s not an aesthetic alternative to return again in another way as a result of I believed he was perfection, it was a narrative alternative. If we’re bringing someone again we’ve got to search out some approach to deliver them again in a brand new means.”
“So right here we at the moment are, bringing Aidan again once more, and we’ve got tips up our sleeve as to how he’s new and what we are able to really do with the storyline contemplating all of the water beneath the bridge,” he concluded.
And Michael’s podcast company praised him for the agency stance that he took with John as they acknowledged that historically it’s girls who face strain to vary their look.
“I simply wish to give Michael Patrick King props,” Elisa started. “You is likely to be among the many few showrunners who really clamp down on males to hit the gymnasium and truly put a little bit strain on their look, which most girls would say tends to fall onto feminine laps.”
Michael responded by referencing the best way that ladies are the extra sexually empowered characters on And Simply Like That and saying: “As I say, we’ve flipped the swap on this present!”
When Aidan’s return was first introduced, not everyone was impressed — particularly when photographs of Aidan and Carrie kissing emerged on-line.
The choice to rekindle the previous romance divided followers, with many mentioning that the connection had already failed a number of instances greater than 20 years in the past.
Others had been upset that Carrie would bounce again to her previous flame after her husband’s demise, and that Aidan would let her. One remark learn on the time: “he shouldn’t be going again to her simply because the person she cheated with died!!!”
However the workforce stood by their determination to deliver Aidan again on the podcast, with Julie saying: “Within the dialogue about bringing Aidan again for Season 2 of And Simply Like That, for me it needed to be about what would actually occur and I imagine it. I feel that’s what occurs once we are older, particularly after a tragedy like Carrie has suffered.”
“Let’s face it, you will have fewer and fewer actually powerfully robust individuals in your life who’ve recognized you for a very long time,” she added. “So I imagine that she would have reached out to him.”
