Looks like the internet won’t have Che Diaz to kick around anymore. According to multiple sources, Sara Ramírez won’t be returning to “And Just Like That” for its third season, which starts production later this year for a 2025 premiere on Max.
Ramírez has played nonbinary standup comedian Che Diaz since Season 1, during which the character became a meme-generating object of mockery. In a cover story interview for Variety‘s Pride issue in June 2022, Ramírez said they had tried to avoid the online commentary. “Other people’s opinions of a character — that’s not something I can allow into my process,” they said. “I choose what I receive, right? That’s the beauty of being grown — I don’t have to receive everything!”
In the first season of “And Just Like That,” Che, who had a podcast with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), swept Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) off her feet, causing her marriage to Steve (David Eigenberg) to end. At the end of Season 1, Che and Miranda went to Los Angeles, where Che was filming a pilot. Throughout the second season, the couple’s once-passionate relationship deteriorated, and they broke up. The Season 2 finale concluded with Carrie saying goodbye to her Upper East Side apartment by hosting a final dinner party there, with both Miranda and Che in attendance.
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Of late, Ramírez has been an outspoken, prolific proponent for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, as reflected on their Instagram. Because of this advocacy, last month, the Daily Mail posted a story that speculated that Ramírez was hinting that they had been fired from “And Just Like That” because of their pro-Palestinian views, pointing to a particular post that stated: “It’s wild how performative so many in Hollywood are. Even more performative than the last character I played.”
Variety‘s sources dispute that Ramírez was fired for their politics or their Instagram presence. These sources say that the Che character had reached a natural conclusion, since their relationship with Miranda had ended.
A spokesperson from Max declined to comment.
In an interview in August with “And Just Like That” showrunner Michael Patrick King after the Season 2 finale, he discussed how the Che character had evolved over the two seasons of the Max hit. “Every time people say they don’t like Che, I go, ‘You mean you don’t like standups!,'” King said. “I mean, you’re standing on stage asking people to think you’re art. It’s a lot, that character. The audience got to see other sides, which is all you’re supposed to be doing if you get more than one season.”
And about the interaction between Miranda and Che in the finale, King said, “Hopefully, at the end, they’re like, “Good they’re not together, and they never will be.”