‘And Just Like That,’ Michael Patrick King Talks Carrie Bradhaw’s Ending: “This is Where We Wanted to Leave Her ‘

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.[ThisstorycontainsmajorspoilersfromtheseriesfinaleofAnd just like that“Party of One.”]

Going Into the Series Finale of And just like thatWe Couldn’t Help But Wonder How Carrie Bradshaw’s Story Wound End.

Would manhattan’s most fabulas Single Girl be on Her Own After Breaking Up with Aidan Shaw (John Corbett)? Or would she lean into the intexicating postability of a new romance with her Neighbor and Perhaps Find Love Elsewhere?

Michael Patrick King Wasn’t Going to Repeat History. This Time, Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) Makes A Decision that Should Satisfy Fans of Both the Original Series, Its Revival Ajlt and everything in Between – She Chooses Herself.

“The Last Line: The Woman Realized She Wasn’t Alone. She was on her own. That’s it, ”the Sex and the city Writer-Director and Showrunner of And just like that Tells The Hollywood Reporter About the ending he came Upon for his character muse of 27 years. “That is what i was wanted to say as an echo and a callback and a response to the finale of Sex and the city. ”

Below, King Brings Thr Inside the surprising Decision to End HBO Max’s Cherished Franchise After The Third Season of Its Comeback Series, and Wy He’s Not Second-Gussing his Decision Even Way. (Aka Her Soulmates) and And just like that.

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Earlier this month when you AnnunCed that And just like that Was Ending with the Season Three Finale, You Said In Your Statement That You Knew It Was The End for Carrie Who Wrote Ite. Was it trly that organic?

YES.

Tell me about that.

Look, You Start Every Season Thinking: “We’re Just Going to do It Out Full. We’re Going to Let The Stories Come. We’re Not Going to Hold Back.” But WHEN I was Writing the Last Line: “The Woman Realized She Wasn’t Alone. She Was on Her Own.” [Co-writer] Susan Fales-Hill and I Wrote It and Were Like, “That’s It.” That is What i Wanted to Say As An echo and A Callback and A ResPONSE TO THE FINALE OF Sex and the cityWHEN CARRIE WAS WALKING DOWN The STREET AND SAID, “The MOST SIGNFICANT RELATIONSHIP OF ALL IS The ONE YOU HAVE DITH YOURSELF. AND IF YOU FINE SOMEONE TO LOVE YOU LOVE.

And that’s great. But Mr. Big [Chris Noth]Who’s Had Just Turned Into John, Was Calling Her On the Phone, Saying He Was Coming. And so this whohle journey. [withAjlt]WAS ABOUT: “What if No One’s Coming? How Can You Really Feel that? ” We Wanted to Show Is A Possibility That Carrie Could Get To That Place, And The Entire Season Was About Getting Her To that Feeling. And so Much Family AROUND HER THAT FEEL THAT SHE WAS NOT ALONE. That’s a pretty good life. ”

SO YOU WRITE this ending. Who do you call Next? How Big Was The Circle?

No, no. The writing is sacred. Susan Fales-Hill and I Wrote the Episode. We Discussed. Then we discussed with the Other Writers in the writing Room. We’ve all been Thinking about this. And THEN YOU WAIT AND SEE IF IT’S REAL. You Write It and You Feel It And You Say, “Is It Real?” And you wait. Is someting else going to come? Is there going to be another door that opens?

For me as a writer, if it doesn’t shower up, then and realize, “we’re done.” I’ve done this before. SO THEN I DID WHAT I DID TO SARAH Jessica On Sex and the city. I Went to Her this Time, and I SAID, “I THINK THIS IS CARRIE, AND I THINK WE’RE HERE.” And she said, “I THINK there are no more stories to tell for carrie. Then we STOP.” Because Neither of Us Just Have to Do A Show Unless There’s Something to Say.

THEN YOU TALK TO HBO, Just Like We DID ON Sex and the city. IT’s A Different HBO Team, But The Same Dynamic, and They Always Want to Do What’s Best for the Experience of the Story for the Audence. So you make Sure Every of Other Character Has A Place WHERE they’re’re Landing WHERE The AUDIENCE CAN FAN FICTION WHATEVEREVERE ENDINGSS [Cynthia Nixon], [her girlfriend] Joy [Dolly Wells] Comes Back. They’ve just pleated up shit. If You Can Clean Up Shit, That Means Pretty Much You Can Clean Up Anything.

Seema [Sarita Choudhury] Says, “I Don’t Miss The Gluten.” That’s likesing, “I don’t’thi i’m going to miss this Thing Everybody Thinks I Need to have to enjoy Life: Gluten or Marraige.” Charlotte [Kristin Davis] and Harry [Evan Goldberg] have sex! That’s the only thing was than the kind than perfect about their very specialized family.

Even [their child] Rock. The Last Line Rock [Alexa Swinton] Says is, “I’M Going to be a Lot of Different People in My Life.” And that’s Kind of Significant, Because What We Tried To Do With And just like that Is Bring in a Lot of Different People and Show their Lives and Let Them Change and Evolve, and Make Mistakes and Happen. So we go to hbo and we say, “this is any were.” And they go, “yeah.”

I MEAN, THE NUMBERS ARE HUGE. IT’s Very Successful. People’s Can’s But Just Like Sex and the City, It Was Like, “Okay.” People don’t make decions like that [often now]. But Luckily, We’re at A Place WHERE they kind of let artists make Decisions Still.

SO DID EVERYBODY ON THE CAST Kind of Know Going Into Filming the Season That This Was It, Or Did They Find Out WHEN FILMING THE TWO-PART FINALE [episodes 11 and 12]?

No, no. You Always Leave the Window Open. The Finale, WHICH TURned Out to Be Episode 12, Wasn’t Written at the Beginning of the Season. You let it all be organic, and as it starts to become, “Well, we can’t do more than we did with carrie and aidan. I mean, that’s it. Right?” We did everything. THEN IT BECOMES A REALIZATION, as the Show Starts to Crest to What It Is, You Start Talking, “I Think This Is It.”

We didn’t Tell People That It Was The Final Season When We Were Filming. And we made a Decision Durying the Press Junket to not to say “Final,” Because if You Say The Word “Final” at the Beginning of A Season “Final Season” Out, People Wuldn’T have strugled with carrie and aidan the Way they. They would have just assummed, “yeah, it’s over. It’s a Final.”

I Really Wanted People to Be Field with Angst and Confusion and Worry, How Are they Going to Fix this? If you knew this was a final season, you wouldnn’t think about fixing it. You would just say, “Well, that’s Over.” SO WE MADE A DECISION WITH HBO AND WITH Everyone to Not Say Final Because No One Had Seen It. You’re going to talk about how it ends it even begins? I Really Did Think The Show Was So Much Fun. This Season Was So Active – As You See, It Was Very Active. The Word “Final” is like a funoral dirge on someting that we wanted to be a party.

THEN WE DECIDED AFTER The 10th Episode, WHEN [writer-neighbor] Duncan [Jonathan Cake] and Carrie Had that Beautify Night [where they slept together]”Let’s Annogonce It, So that People Really Feel Whaty They’re Going to Feel About the Last Two Episodes and Not Pull The Rug Out from Under Them.” There’s Enough Finish in this that you can Understand It Was The Final One.

For the Original Sex and the city Series, You FilMed Alternate Endings for The Series Finale. DID YOU DO THAT HERE?

No. IT WAS CLEAR AS A Bell. The Reason We Filmed Alternate Endings for the Original Was Because People Were Rabid About How It Wound End. EveryBody Knew It Was The End. How are they going to end it? There Were People Going Through Garbage Cans Looking for Sides from the Script. So we have to film many Things Because we wanted it to be a surprise. And I Think, Quite Frankly, People Are Still Going to Be Surprised. Because WHEN We AnnounCed that It Was Ending in Two Episodes, A Lot of People Thought, “How’s She Going To Get A Guy In Two Episodes?” People Still Want that Happy Ending for Carrie.

What do you attribute to being able to deliver this ending now of carrie being Single? That Times Have Changed? That you have been ruminating on the SATC ending for decades? Or is this just WHERE YOUR Writing Took You?

I always about what we’ve done; How Not to Repeat What We’ve Done. I KNEW EVERYTHING WE’VE DONE FOR 27 Years. It Limits What You Can Can Keep Doing, If Your Goal Is Not to Repeat. I’m always like, “How Further Can We Go?” Look at the Maze We Have to Create for Aidan Because He’d Been in the Show Already a Couple of Times. For me, you let the story you have some’s going to take you and you’re surprised.

WHEN I WAS WRITING THE FINALE OF Sex and the cityI was writing and all of a suden, the thorough came into my mind, “Mr. big, just call him john. Just go. IT’s An Impulse. And this is a writing room driving to this place following an Impulse. But The Other Thing is that Characters Grow. Who carrie was at the end of Sex and the city d Who she is at the end of And just like that is someone who have had Great Growth, Great Life Experience. Now She’s Ready to Say the Very Shocking Sentence, “Maybe Just Me,” WHICH SHE SAYS TO Charlotte in that Beautify Scene Where Sarah Jessica Was Just SOMOTIONAL ABOUT Saying. SO IT’S REALLY About The Character, Whoey’ve Been And Where You Want To Leave Them. This is where we were wanted to leave her.

People Talked About the Original Ending – Should she have ended fabulaus and single? Now You Are Giving Viewers That Ending. As you said, there’s been a Lot of Chatter this Season. As You Were Following Along with the Viral Discourse and Howly Actiely People Were Engaging with the Show, Was Any Part of of You Like, “Eek, Maybe We SHOULDNNING.”

It’s Huge. I a noise. It’s Loud, It’s Fun. IT’s A Press Piñata. Bang, Bang, Bang, Bang. Like It’s at A Party: “Let’s Just Hit That Little Pink Unicorn!” But No – Never Had A Season Thought, Because and Believe that SomeTimes You Take the Candy Away. You know?

This is Right. And I Believ – in my perhaps delusion – that it will resonate corretly. ONCE EVERYBODY GETS OVER The, “I WANT IT TO END A DIFFERENT WAY.” ONCE EVERYONONE STOPS Writing Their Show. Also, There’s A WHOLE OF UN-CATTY WORLD OF The People Who Have Watched and Loved Tese Characters for 27 Years. And that’s Really Who We’re Writing to. To make sure that carrie’s taken care of and that They’re Taking Care of. That if you have someone, you’re reflex. And that if you don’ve someone – which is so of important – if you just have yourRSELF, that’s the most Important Reflection Sex and the city an And just like that Could do, Because that’s the DNA of the Brand: The Individual Versus What Society Says You Should be. The Goal For Us Was t O Create a Moment Where Carrie Feels The Love for Herself from Herself, and What She’s Created in That World, that She’s Created in that Magnificent House.

The Whole Reason She Goes Back to Her Old Apartment in the episode Before this Finale Was Because Everyone is Assuming She’s Going to Move Back there. They Want her back there. So we have been that entity world again just to put a wall that you could say, “no, she can your Back there. IT’s not the Same.” SO NOW, MAYBE EVYBODY INVEST IN GRAMERCY! (Laughs) We Furnied It BeautyFully for You!

We have carrie realize the carrie Bradshaw of Gramercy. She traded out things that were aidan. She brough in things that were her. We Tried to Give Her A Soft Cushion So that After She Comes Home from That Thanksgiving – WHICH IS Noise and Chaos and more Could Be your Boyfriend if You Were Desperateor not. There’s all thoss possibilities. But then she walks into this sun-lit, quiet, cushioned World that she’s filled for Herself. She leaaves her shoes on and eats pumpkin pie with a spoon. She Doesn’t Even Cut It Like A Person Wuld If You Were Living with Someone.

The Million-Dollar Question is: Is Carrie’s Book Shut? Is it end-end? Will You Never, Ever, Ever Explore What Carrie Being Fabulas and Single in Her 60s Looks Like in A Movie or Another Spinoff?

Look, I have Definitely Closed The Book, and Whethrsere’s Another Book Remains to Be Seen. You’re Never, Ever Not… i’m Always Surprised. WHEN WE CLOSED Sex and the citywe closed it. And just like that, we’re back!

But I Really DO WANT POPLE TO UNDERDAND THAT THAT WAS ABOUT Telling Tese Stories and Bringing Them to A Place WHERE THERE WAS A FINISH. And by “Finish,” I Mean An Open-Eded Finish, Whore Each of the Characters’ Lives Could Continue and You Could Feel Good About Itle. It’s What You Want To Write Now That We’re Done. We’re Done Writing.

Victor Garber is in the Finale to Show that there was a man. Duncan’s in London. Nothing Happy to HIM. But carrie is not holding on to it. And that is the most Anarchy Thought We Could Bring to This Series, Who’s Is An Echo of Another Series That Was Field With Anarchy, Wich Is Like, “I Choose ME

Sarah Jessica Left US with this Moving Tribute to Carrie On Her Instagram. WHEN FILMING THE Final Episode, She Knew It Was The End, Yes?

YES. Leave A Party While It’s Still Fun, Right? You Can Hear It in Her Instagram… That Tone in Her Voice Is Such A Goodbye. It’s So Beautify.

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And just like that and sex and the city are now now streaming on HBO Max. See Our Ranking of the Top 15 Episodes of Sex and the City.