Right couple, wrong timing? Carrie Bradshaw and Aidan Shaw weren’t endgame in Sex and the City — but things appear to be looking up for the fan-favorite couple.
Fans were originally introduced to the carpenter (John Corbett) in season 3 when he started dating Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) following her split from Mr. Big (Chris Noth). The romance, however, took a turn when the writer cheated on her boyfriend with her ex.
While Carrie and Aidan attempted to give their love another try six months later, their past issues prevent them from getting their happily ever after.
After a brief appearance in the second Sex and the City movie, the country music singer later hinted that Aidan’s story would continue in the revival.
“I’m going to do the show,” Corbett teased to Page Six in April 2021, noting he was “very” excited to take part in And Just Like That. “I think I might be in quite a few [episodes]. I like all those people, they’ve been very nice to me.”
Viewers were in for a surprise when the musician ultimately didn’t reprise his role in the first season. At the time, showrunner Michael Patrick King denied that there was a plan to incorporate Aidan in the initial episodes.
“No, there’s nothing old news about Sarah Jessica Parker and John Corbett as actors and beings and interests,” King shared with Deadline in February 2022. “The fact of the matter is, we never said anything about Aidan, just like we never said, Steve [Brady, played by David Eigenberg] and Carrie [Parker] are getting together.”
He added: “We always try to be very restrained and look at the reality of what people are experiencing and it has nothing to do with Aidan coming or not coming. It really just felt like this was a lot for Carrie. This season was a lot. We wanted to get her through this and into the light—the last episode is called, Seeing the Light. We wanted to get her out. [Aidan’s return] is a big storyline that everybody at home wrote that we had never intended.”
Parker also weighed in on Corbett’s surprising comments about a potential return.
“He actually reached out very kindly, because he’s nothing if not a gentleman, and apologized for doing that as a joke,” Parker said on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen that same month. “And then I was like, ‘No, no, no, I mean, it’s a free country, first of all, and second of all, I thought it was kind of delightful and fun.’”
While filming season 2 nearly one year later, the Hocus Pocus star confirmed the To All the Boys actor’s involvement. “Shh. Don’t tell anyone,” she captioned January 2023 photos via Instagram of her and Corbett walking through New York City as their fictional counterparts.
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