And Just Like That… showrunner Michael Patrick King has revealed the plot line he planned to explore with the character of Stanford Blatch in the Sex and the City sequel before actor Willie Garson's tragic death.
The sequel series began airing last December – three months after the sudden passing of Willie who died aged 57 following a battle pancreatic cancer.
Willie filmed three episodes of the show before he became too ill to continue and sadly passed away in September.
Michael, 67, had planned to include Stamford in all 10 episodes of And Just Like That… which would have seen him experiencing a midlife crisis and growing even closer to Carrie Bradshaw – played by Sarah Jessica Parker.
The show dealt with his death by having his character suddenly divorce Anthony Marentino, played by Mario Cantone, and move to Japan to manage a TikTok star – with all the events occurring off-screen and Stamford sharing the details with Carrie via a letter.
Discussing his original plans for the character, Michael told Variety: “Stanford was going to have a midlife crisis.
“Stanford’s character always had a borderline career as a manager, and we were like going to explore the fact that it wasn’t a real career. It was going to be Carrie and him, feeling the shifts. Anthony and him were probably going to have split anyway.
“Then we would keep both of them in, and everybody would be relieved that they were divorced because it was not pleasant for anybody. But there was a series of really fun, flirty, hilarious confidante scenes with Carrie that I loved. That old, old, very specific chemistry that Carrie and Stanford have, which is based totally on the uniqueness of Willie and Sarah Jessica’s history.”
Michael also said he wrote out Willie’s character rather than kill him off in a script too as it would have been too difficult to incorporate into the show.
He explained: “Life and death is one thing in fiction: When it’s real, it’s not funny or cute. I didn’t want to even flirt narratively with cute business about where he is.
"I knew the audience would never invest in it, because they knew he was never coming back. It’s the most threadbare writing I’ve ever done just to move him along without much manoeuvring, because it was just so sad.
“There was no way I could write myself out of that in any charming, cute way.”
Willie had battled cancer while filming his scenes and initially didn’t tell any of his cast mates about his health struggles – although he did confide in show star Sarah.
Cynthia Nixon, who plays Miranda Hobbes on the show, told Deadline last December: “[Sarah] was the only one that knew he was sick when we were filming until things became undeniable and then we were told.
“Thankfully we were able to shoot with him not just before he was sick but after so it could be something we could discuss and listen to him about.”
He left behind a 19-year-old adopted son named Nathan.
