And Just Like That… showrunner reveals why Willie Garson’s character was not killed off after actor died

The showrunner of And Just Like That… has revealed why Stanford Blatch wasn’t killed when his actor Willie Garson died.

During the original run of Sex And The City, Stanford became a fan favorite as the gay best friend of Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw.

Willie returned for a short recurring stint on season one of And Just Like That… – but succumbed to pancreatic cancer in late 2021 at just 57 years old.

Instead of killing Stanford, the show wrote him out by moving him to Tokyo, and in this week’s episode it turns out that he has become a Shinto monk.

“We wanted Willie to live like Stanford somewhere in the world,” showrunner Michael Patrick King said on the And just like that… The Writers’ Room podcast.

At the season two premiere, Carrie is complimented on her “stunning kimono” and fondly reveals, “My friend Stanford sent it to me from Japan.”

“What we came up with is that he went to Japan for a TikTok tour. And I would say it was a Band-Aid,” Michael revealed on the podcast.

“It was a quick fix. It was kinda, it was like thin ice. We skated over it because we had to because suddenly he wasn’t on the show and we didn’t want Stanford to die.”

The decision to make Stanford a Shinto monk was prompted by a trip Michael took to Kyoto with Sarah Jessica in 2010.

They had just arrived in Tokyo for the premiere of the second Sex And The City film, which Michael both wrote and directed.

Sex And The City 2, in which Liza Minnelli sang Beyoncé’s Single Ladies, was torn by the critics and became a punchline among the fans.

“I went to Kyoto with Sarah Jessica after the second movie, which I don’t know, spoiler alert, wasn’t well received,” Michael said dryly on the podcast.

After the movie’s blistering response, Michael was “on a kind of emotional shockwave, and I went from temple to temple with Sarah Jessica. I sat there trying to let go of these complicated feelings, and I felt a kind of peace, and Sarah Jessica just sat there with me, and it was so beautiful,” he said.

There were no tears, but no laughter. It was just, I feel this space in these beautiful temples, that people would come in — me, a tourist, I would come in, I would light a candle, I would look at the flowers,” he recalled.

Michael, who directed the original Sex And The City series for many years, commented that ‘because it was Sarah Jessica and me, it always felt more than just me. It was quietly us.’

Years later when I started thinking, like, “Where is Stanford and what are we going to do?” I somehow tapped into that feeling that Sarah Jessica and I had. Because I know that Carrie and Stanford had a very deep connection, and I’m happy to say that Sarah Jessica and I have a very deep personal connection.”

Michael shared on the podcast, “So I thought, ‘What if he just stayed there in that beautiful, blissful temple and became a Shinto monk?'”

He made it clear that “I’ve done all my research, and you don’t have to be Japanese to be a Shinto monk and you just have to put in some time.”

With a chuckle, he said, “And when it said, the descriptions were, you facilitate the tourist visits and change the flowers on the altar, I thought, ‘Concierge!”‘

In the series finale, Stanford’s ex-husband Anthony (Mario Cantone) sarcastically describes a monk’s calling as “actually God’s caretaker.”