Here's Why And Just Like That Fans Think Cynthia Nixon Ruined Miranda

When the Sex and the City spin-off series, And Just Like That, premiered in 2021, it received extreme reactions. Fans of the original television show weren't happy. Since Kim Cattrall made it clear she wouldn't be returning as Samantha Jones, fans were already skeptical.

However, they were even angrier at the direction the writers took Cynthia Nixon's character, Miranda Hobbes. In fact, many viewers began pointing the finger at Cynthia herself, believing she was the one to blame.

Fans Believe Cynthia Nixon Is The Reason Her Character Is Written So Poorly

When And Just Like That premiered its first season in 2021, fans of the beloved Sex and the City franchise were outraged at the direction of the character Miranda. In the first season, Miranda develops a drinking problem. She also has issues with her husband and longtime love interest from the original series, Steve Brady.

On top of that, she develops an infatuation and has an affair with Che Diaz, a non-binary comedian. Miranda meets Che through Carrie, since Che is the head of the podcast Carrie works for in the first season. In one episode, Che arrives at Carrie's apartment while she is in bed with an injury. Miranda is there too and proceeds to have sex with Che in the kitchen while the two believe Carrie is asleep. In fact, Carrie actually wakes up during the encounter and struggles to get out of bed to use the bathroom.

Fans were furious at this storyline and expressed their dissatisfaction to The New York Post. One fan said, “All of us had something to say about how annoying Che Diaz is in it.” Another fan took issue with the way Che represented the queer and non-binary community. “The entire routine felt like an AI-generated monologue for a queer person,” they said.

Much to the delight of fans, Sara Ramírez, who played Che Diaz, was confirmed to not be returning to And Just Like That following Season 2. A source told The Daily Mail, “Sara was fired because Che brought nothing to the show anymore. After Che split with Miranda, the character really held no value anymore and fans found them annoying.”

Cynthia Nixon hasn't been shy about expressing her disagreements with fans who take issue with Miranda's character arc. She spoke to People after the first season of And Just Like That premiered. During the interview, she defended Miranda and said she doesn't believe what she's doing is out of character for her.

"First of all, I think Miranda is brave, and I think Miranda is charging forward," Cynthia said. "She doesn't know where she's going exactly, but she knows she has to go somewhere. And I think that's always been true of Miranda, right?"

"Miranda's very smart, and she's very tenacious, but the idea that she's levelheaded — she's never been levelheaded!" she continued. "She's a loose cannon, a very opinionated loose cannon. She's always been a bull in a china shop and losing her temper and blowing things up then having to backtrack when she calms down."

"She gives up her very lucrative corporate job and goes back to try and make something more of her life," Cynthia added. "As Miranda says: We're not old, we're 55. I mean, you're certainly closer to the end than to the beginning. But if you're not happy with where you are, you still have a lot of time to make a change."

A lot of fans blame Cynthia herself for the direction the spin-off took with the character. Many believe Cynthia, who is married to a woman, wanted to inject her own experiences into the character. One fan wrote on Reddit, "Cynthia Nixon wanted to be a trailblazer so she killed Miranda and turned her into Cynthia Nixon but no one reminded her that Samantha was the first queer main character on SATC."

Another fan wrote, "Yep. She also turned Miranda into Cynthia with all the social justice stuff. That’s totally Cynthia in real life."
Someone else wrote, "It almost feels like cynthia nixon said I wont come back unless she's gay."
"This is absolutely what happened and this need to turn the character into her own personal experience has really damaged Miranda," another user wrote. "I'm all for Cynthia Nixon living her best life but you're acting and this character isn't you."

Much of this belief has to do with how involved Cynthia is with And Just Like That. She has not only directed episodes of the spin-off, but she is also credited as an executive producer. When asked by Variery if she added her own experiences "as a queer woman" to the series, Cynthia had an interesting response.

"The writers may choose to add elements of all of our experiences," she said. "Michael Patrick King obviously knows us very well, as do the other writers, particularly Elisa Zuritsky and Julie Rottenberg, who were there on the original show."

Fans Of The Franchise Were Already Skeptical Due To Samantha's Absence

When And Just Like That was first announced, fans of the beloved Sex and the City were skeptical. After all, Kim Cattrall had already made it clear that she no longer wanted to be part of the franchise. In 2017, Kim spoke to Piers Morgan on ITV in the UK and revealed the truth about her relationship with her former co-stars.

"We've never been friends," Cattrall said. "We've been colleagues and in some ways it's a very healthy place to be because then you have a clear line between your professional life and relationship and your personal."

The sequel to the first Sex and the City movie wasn't well-received by fans. However, they were very hopeful a third film would make things right again. When speculation about a third film arose in the media, fans were very excited about the possibility. However, these hopes were soon squashed due to Kim's lack of involvement.

Suddenly, a series of rumors began. Many claimed Kim was making diva demands and wanted more money than her co-stars. However, Kim said this wasn't true and characterized her move away from the Sex and the City franchise as "an empowered decision in my life to end one chapter and start another."

And that wasn't all Kim said. She took issue with being labeled "demanding or a diva" and appeared to place blame for these rumors on Sarah Jessica Parker. "This is really where I take to task the people from Sex and the City and specifically Sarah Jessica Parker, is that I think she could have been nicer," Kim said. "I really think she could have been nicer. I don't know what her issue is."

While the news was disappointing to fans, this wouldn't be the last time the public witnessed the bad blood Kim had for Sarah. In fact, Kim lashed out at Sarah via social media following the death of her brother. When Sarah offered her public condolences to Kim, the actress shot back and refused the sentiments.

"Your continuous reaching out is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now," Kim wrote. "You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I’m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your ‘nice girl’ persona."

Sarah spoke with The Hollywood Reporter in 2022 and addressed Kim's remarks. "I’ve spent a lot of years working really hard to always be decent to everybody on the set, to take care of people, to be responsible to and for people, both my employers and the people that I feel I’m responsible for as a producer of the show," Sarah said. "And there just isn’t anyone else who’s ever talked about me this way."

Fans Weren't Happy With The Way Samantha's Character Was Portrayed In And Just Like That Either

In the first episode, Samantha's absence is explained during a conversation between Carrie and Miranda. Carrie said that when she told Samantha she didn't need her as a publicist due to the publishing industry changing, Samantha took it personally. She responded by cutting ties with Carrie and moving to London.

"I’m not one of those people who thinks that Sam is some faultless goddess, but she would never choose money over her friends," one fan wrote on Reddit. "There were points in the original series that illustrated that Samantha thought people were too 'funny about money' and that it shouldn’t strain relationships the way that it does. That script was clearly pushing an agenda."

The original user who started the thread claimed they believed the storyline was a direct reference to Kim's split from the series in real life. They wrote that "it seems like a poor jab at the money/Kim Cattrall drama. Making Samantha's reason for leaving being a fight with Carrie about money and Samantha's 'pride' seemed so on the nose. I wonder if they were trying to be sly."

Sarah also said that Kim wasn't asked to be part of And Just Like That. She said that not only did they act according to Kim's own declaration that she no longer wished to be part of the show, but didn't feel comfortable around her as a result.

"We did not ask her to be part of this [And Just Like That] because she made it clear that that wasn’t something she wanted to pursue, and it no longer felt comfortable for us, and so it didn’t occur to us," Sarah said. "That’s not ‘slamming’ her, it’s just learning."

She continued, "You’ve got to listen to somebody, and if they’re publicly talking about something and it doesn’t suggest it’s someplace they want to be, or a person they want to play, or an environment in which they want to be, you get to an age where you’re like, ‘Well, we hear that.'"

Despite this outcome, Kim did make a return as Samantha Jones for a brief cameo in the Season 2 finale of And Just Like That. During the scene, Samantha appears via phone call to wish Carrie well and celebrate the end of her living in the apartment she's called home since the start of the original series.

"The friendship is mended," Sarah told The Hollywood Reporter. "They talked about it; you’ll see. The friendship [between Carrie and Samantha] is in good shape and I think by the time we get to that phone call that we share [in the finale], the portrait is clear of where they are and who they are. It’s just a really sentimental, funny, sweet moment that is timed perfectly for a specific event that’s happening in Carrie’s life. It’s so familiar. So it’s really nice, I think."