After nine weeks of breakups, hookups and one shocking death, the season finale of And Just Like That… is nearly upon us. As this new chapter for our beloved musketeers draws to a close, we’re still brimming with questions: what will happen on Carrie’s date with Peter? Has Seema found the special man she’s been looking for? And will Miranda actually divorce Steve and make things official with Che?

Yes, the case of Miranda Hobbes has arguably the biggest and most divisive story this season. Longtime SATC fans have been thrilled and horrified in equal measure at the way Miranda has upended her life by pursuing a new romance with the queer, non-binary comedian. 

Regardless of whether you love or loathe Miranda’s life choices in the reboot, there’s no denying that she’s come a long way from her roots as a hard-nosed, defiantly heterosexual lawyer in Sex And The City.

According to showrunner and writer-director Michael Patrick King, in fact, radical evolution was the whole idea. In a new interview with Variety, King explained that he was always set on a seismic shift for the characters when he set about making the new series.

“We did something that was hard to do, which is we took something familiar and did make it new,” he explained, “for better and for worse.” 

When it came to writing Miranda’s storyline, King continued, he was adamant that she “had to explode”, chiefly because she’s historically been the most sexually liberated character.

“She’s always been the one who said the thing – always,” he explained. “She’s also the first one to try everything sexually in the series. Tuchus lingus, dirty talk – season one dirty talk with Miranda! So I thought, “OK, what’s sex now?” And it became, “What about gender? What about sexuality?” 

As we discussed when Miranda first had her queer awakening, King also confirmed that he did take inspiration from Cynthia Nixon’s personal life when penning her character arc. In And Just Like That, Miranda has a late-in-life coming out, reflecting the nature of Nixon’s own exploration of her sexuality in the years after the original TV series ended. Art imitating life, basically.

“Look at Cynthia, where she is – where Miranda could be,” he continued. “Men have a midlife crisis, and it’s expected. They leave their wife, they get a car. Miranda had an incredibly interesting break from her social self. She let her red hair go gray. She quit her corporate job, and she threw herself into improving herself.

“And what came at her was something bigger. A big force! Life came at her, just the way death came at Carrie.”

King went on to explain that he was fully prepared for the backlash against Miranda’s new romance.

“I said in the writing room, “Uh, get ready. Because what’s coming is outrage about Miranda calling out her marriage.” Whoever is in the activating of that will be an issue. But the real issue is – and I say this with love – 90% of long-term relationships are watching television, sharing dessert and talking about kids. So that’s trouble when Miranda points a finger at that relationship, which a lot of people are very happy with, and says, “This isn’t enough.”

King also referred to new character Che (Sara Ramirez) as “Miranda’s liberator”, and explained that the internet’s reaction to the storyline was natural given the deep emotional attachment fans have to the show.

“People are going to look for who’s the villain. Che is, in my estimation, honest, dangerous, sexy, funny and warm. What everybody else is projecting on that character has a lot to do with what they want to have happen to Miranda in the story. It has so little to do with Che.”

The only question is: will Miranda actually get her romcom ending?

Images: Sky/HBO Max