New Details! Why the Fight Over Sex and the City 3 Exploded as Kim Cattrall Walked Away

 

Our four favorite fabulous ladies won’t be reuniting for a third Sex and the City movie —and there’s no love lost as new details emerge about why the sequel imploded.

Multiple sources tell PEOPLE that star Kim Cattrall’s demands led studio Warner Bros. to kill the in-development sequel, which Sarah Jessica Parker has said had a “beautiful, funny, heartbreaking, joyful, very relatable script and story” ready for filming.

Cattrall “was dragging her feet all summer and cast and crew members had put their lives on hold to get ready to shoot the movie,” says one source. “Then when she made outrageous demands, the studio had enough and pulled the plug. Her demand for them to buy her films in development and to give her a TV deal are what broke the camel’s back for them.”

Another source echoes that, saying Cattrall was “a demanding diva.”

But a third source with knowledge of the situation counters that Cattrall wanted her character treated better.

“She was willing to have a conversation, but she needed to hear something she hasn’t heard before — namely, that they would treat her character with some dignity and respect — and they wouldn’t even engage in that sort of discussion,” the source says. 

The source says that Cattrall’s Samantha had “one humiliating plot line after another” in the two movies made after the series wrapped. In the first, Samantha is dumped by her boyfriend and ends the show turning 50. (Both Samantha and Cattrall, now 61, are the oldest of the SATC leads.) In the second movie, Samantha was going through menopause and experiencing hot flashes.

“And yet she never wanted to derail things and she’s never demanded story approval and she’s never tried to meddle with what the screenwriters and show creators thought was best,” the source says.

WATCH: Kim Cattrall Slams Sarah Jessica Parker as Tensions Surrounding SATC 3 Revealed: ‘Kim Killed the Movie,’ Says Source

 

Money, of course, was also an issue. While Parker and series creator Michael Patrick King were producers on the lucrative movies and TV series, Cattrall and the other stars weren’t.  “Kim’s not the only one who got left out of a lot of money to be earned back when the show was on the air. Let’s just say unless you had had a first, middle and last name listed in the credits, you were not seeing any SATC money beyond your episode salary,” the source says.

Cattrall made waves when she threw shade at Parker during an interview with Piers Morgan on Britain’s ITV this week as she denied having been difficult during negotiations. “For me it’s over, it’s over with no regrets, I just wish that Sarah had been nicer. I never asked for any money, I never asked for any projects, to be thought of as some kind of diva is absolutely ridiculous.”

Meanwhile, some of the other cast members have weighed in. Kristin Davis called it “deeply frustrating” that she wouldn’t get to play Charlotte again in a heartfelt note to fans on her Instagram. Willie Garson, who played Stanford Blatch, slammed Cattrall.

Mr. Big, meanwhile, has stayed outside the fray thus far. Chris Noth “was never even asked to be part of the movie, only because it didn’t get far enough to get to that point,” a source tells PEOPLE.  “He was never vocal about not wanting to be part of it — he just said, ‘If they’re making a third, they haven’t called me yet.’

With reporting by KATE COYNE and GILLIAN TELLING