Nicole Ari Parker has been added to the upcoming Sex and the City reboot to fill the absence of Kim Cattrall’s Samantha Jones character.
Ari Parker will be playing Carrie Bradshaw’s new best friend, Lisa Todd Wexley, a documentary filmmaker, according toThe Guardian. Ari Parker is known for her roles in Fox’s Empire and Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 film Boogie Nights.
Ari Parker’s Wexley will be the friend group’s new fourth member for the revival, called Just Like That …, which is set to be executive produced by Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon—all of whom appeared in the original series—and writer Michael Patrick King.
The new HBO Max show was announced back in January with Sarah Aubrey, head of original content at HBO Max, saying, “I grew up with these characters, and I can’t wait to see how their story has evolved in this new chapter, with the honesty, poignancy, humor and the beloved city that has always defined them.”
It’s also been no secret that Parker and Cattrall weren’t the best of friends, as Cattrall tapping out of the franchise after doing two Sex and the City movies.
“Not for me. That was part of turning 60,” Cattrall said in 2017 regarding passing on the opportunity to shoot more films. “That was a very clear moment of how many years do I have left and what do I want to do with it? What haven’t I done? I feel that the show was the best when it was the series and the bonus was the two movies.”
After the reboot announcement, the show also saw backlash due to its largely white cast. In addition to Ari Parker’s new role, a few other people of color have been added to the cast, like Sara Ramirez, Karen Pittman, and Sarita Choudhury.
