Exclusive Interview
Will Carrie & Aidan’s Romance Last? ‘And Just Like That’ Boss Teases Their Future in Season 3
Just when Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) thought she had her next chapter figured out, life threw her another curveball. After a whirlwind reunion with old flame Aidan Shaw (John Corbett) in And Just Like That… Season 2, she believed this was their second (okay, third) chance to get it right.
Their relationship may still work out in the long run – it’s just going to take a little longer than either of them expected. Instead of moving into Carrie’s Gramercy place, Aidan asked Carrie to wait five years until his kids had all graduated high school. Will they be able to survive the wait? Showrunner Michael Patrick King spoke with us about Carrie and Aidan’s Season 3 journey.
“It’s interesting the bargain or the deal they made,” King said. “I started the actual writing room this year by saying what exactly did Carrie agree to? All the other writers different opinions of what she agreed to. And I thought, oh, that’s so exciting. I don’t know if Carrie even knows what she agreed to.”
King recognized Carrie and Aidan’s “long relationship evolution,” which started in Sex and the City over 20 years ago. “There have been two very difficult breakups, and now we’re in this other phase where they came into each other’s lives at a certain point where they’re further along,” he noted.
Craig Blankenhorn / Max
Their rekindled relationship “seemed to work really well until the last moment,” King acknowledged. “This season is about dealing with the past, the present, and the future of Carrie and Aidan, and we did. I personally know that there’s an enormous chemistry between Sarah Jessica Parker and John Corbett that, as a showrunner, I’d be crazy not to invest in.”
He continued, “I think people like Aidan, and I think there are people that want Carrie and Aidan, and I think there are people that want Carrie alone, and that will be a fun journey to see who wins.”
At the end of last season, Carrie admitted at her “last supper” in her apartment that she was letting go of expectations. Given the Aidan situation, her answer was notably prescient.
“She had an expectation that everything was going to work out,” King explained. “Aidan was going to move into Gramercy with her immediately, and instead, he threw a big curve. So Carrie is really trying to do the most she can with living in the moment and seeing what she feels about what’s happening to her, and Carrie is not a character that ever has really lived that much in the moment.”
And Just Like That…, Season 3 Premiere, May 29, HBO Max
— Reporting by Andrea Towers
