Sex and the City fans are beside themselves after John Corbett gets cast in And Just Like That

John Corbett will be reprising his role as dreamy carpenter Aidan Shaw inAnd Just Like That– and Sex and the City fans are divided.

The star, 61, played the love interest – and at one point, fiancé – of Sarah Jessica Parker’s sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw in the original series.

According to a report in Deadline, the actor will have a prominent role when the spin-off returns for a second season.

Some fans are ecstatic. “Yay yay and yay!!!!” tweeted one person. “YASSSSSSSSSSS WE WON!” posted another.

“john corbett girlies it’s HAPPENING,” added a third.

A fourth posted: “Ohhhhhhhh my. As someone who is Team Big, always has & always will, I am very on board with Aidan’s return.”

Others aren’t so sure, given the fact that Carrie cheated on Aidan with Chris Noth’s Mr Big.

“I wonder how this will play out… Carrie did not deserve him,” posted one fan.

“You’re too good for her, Aidan!!” added another, while a third shared: “Has Carrie not tormented him enough?”

A fourth added: “Always loved Aidan over John aka Mr Big, Carrie don’t mess this up again.”

Corbett had previously tricked fans into thinking he would be appearing in season one, with Parker later clarifying: “It was fun. It was fun for him to say that. When he actually reached out, very kindly, because he’s nothing if not a gentleman, and apologised for doing that as a joke, I was like, ‘No, no, no, it’s a free country first of all.’”

In another interview, Corbett said he imagined the new Aidan wouldn’t be that different to the old character – “probably wearing some of the same clothes, working on furniture, and driving an old truck”.

And Just Like That’s executive producer Michael Patrick King previously talked to Deadline about the decision not to bring back Aidan straight away, saying: “It really just felt like this was a lot for Carrie. We wanted to get her through Big’s death and into the light…

“We wanted to get her out. Aidan’s return is a big storyline that everybody at home wrote that we had never intended.”

Corbett’s last appearance in the franchise was in the second spin-off movie, Sex and the City 2, in which Aidan was married to a woman called Kathy, with whom he’d had three children.

Mr Big actor Noth is not thought to be returning to the series, after he was accused of sexual assault by multiple women (allegations that he denied). He was also edited out of the season one finale.

And Just Like That also stars Cynthia Nixon as Miranda and Kristin Davis as Charlotte. Kim Cattrall, who is engaged in a longstanding feud with Parker, did not reprise her role as Samantha in the spin-off.