And Just Like That Creator Confirms What We Suspected About The Ending Of Willie Garson's Arc
In the world of character actors, there are many greats, and Willie Garson was one of them. With 170 acting credits to his name, he was much more than Carrie Bradshaw's bestie "Stanny" lent him to be. (No shade to Stanford Blatch; we stan him.) Spoilers for "And Just Like That" ahead.
From "White Collar" to "Mr. Belvedere," Garson ran the gamut. In fact, he even almost passed on being in "Sex and the City" because it didn't seem like "a big deal" at the time. In one of his final interviews before Garson's death from pancreatic cancer on September 21, 2021, he explained to The Creative Coalition that he got spots on two pilots on the same day — one for Fox and one for HBO. At the time HBO didn't seem like the obvious choice, so Garson chose Fox, but "SATC" had him as a guest on the pilot anyway.
"We shot 13 episodes [for the Fox show], and it was canceled," he told Creative Coalition. "['SATC'] had a year between when we made the pilot ... So we called [them] up and said, 'Hey, listen, uh, we made a mistake and we'd like to come back.' And they said, 'Well, we kind of like it this way, as a recurring character instead of a regular character.' So I stayed a recurring character for, you know, six-and-a-half seasons — a very popular recurring character." Since Stanford was such a popular character, how did the writers just let him walk away?
Stanford was supposed to be in every episode of And Just Like That
In an interview with Variety, "Sex and the City" and "And Just Like That" showrunner Michael Patrick King gave fans some closure after Stanford Blatch's abrupt exit from "AJLT." Stanford is given a rushed exit because Willie Garson died during filming, and the writers weren't able to complete his storyline. He leaves for Tokyo to manage a teenage TikTok creator without a proper goodbye to anyone — not even Carrie.
King confirms that wasn't supposed to happen. Stanford was actually supposed to be in every episode of "AJLT," but after Garson's death, it simply wasn't possible. Stanford was supposed to have a midlife crisis and feel insecure about his management career. He probably still would've split from his marriage to Anthony, and the story was going to be about both him and Carrie seeing their careers shift.
"There was a series of really fun, flirty, hilarious confidante scenes with Carrie that I loved," King told Variety. "That old, old, very specific chemistry that Carrie and Stanford have, which is based totally on the uniqueness of Willie and Sarah Jessica [Parker]'s history. Life and death is one thing in fiction: When it's real, it's not funny or cute." King added that concluding Stanford's story arc was the most "threadbare" writing he had ever done "because it was just so sad." Hardcore Stanny stans can find some relief in King's revelations — or just imagine Stanford living his best life drinking boba in Japan.