The decision to kill off a character who had been so prevalent in Carrie Bradshaw's (Sarah Jessica Parker) story since the pilot episode of the HBO sitcom back in 1998 was met with tears, tantrums and downright confusion among diehard fans.
But alas, the charming Mr Big (Chris Noth) is dead, suffering from a heart attack before the reboot – which streams on Binge – had even properly kicked into gear.
Now, original SATC creator Michael Patrick King – who also created And Just Like That – has explained why he did it.
King told Entertainment Weekly he decided Big would die prior to hitting the drawing board on the reboot.
Carrie and Big were the series' pin-up love story for six seasons and two movies. Photo / HBO
"I wouldn't have come back if I didn't have a really strong impulse [to explore the idea of] 'Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?' for the character [Carrie] who has done nothing but tried to find love from this one person," King said.
"I also felt comfortable because the DNA is the same. People forget, Carrie never had Big in the series. She had him briefly — a minute or two. And she doesn't have Big now. It's just a different circumstance. It's more final."
King further detailed his reasoning for killing off Mr Big, referencing the very last episode of SATC in 2004, in which Big finally commits to Carrie after six seasons of being a flake.
Carrie narrates the final seconds, and while she's blissfully happy with her dream man, she concedes: "But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself."
King added: "People are like, 'How could you have done this?' The last voiceover in the series is why I did it.
"Everybody thinks when [Carrie's] walking down the street and Big says 'I'm coming, baby' that that's the happy ending. And it is. But what Carrie's really saying in the voiceover is that the most significant, challenging, loving relationship you will ever have is the one you make with yourself.
"And if you find somebody else who sees you, that's fabulous. So this [show] is about the significant, challenging, loving relationship — we're trying to prove the thesis and the theory that you're enough."
