Rosie O’Donnell, Patti LuPone in season 3

Just like the fashion pieces, And Just Like That is all about couture characters. “It truly is bespoke writing,” executive producer Michael Patrick King says to Entertainment Weekly in an exclusive interview. “None of this is casting. This is all designed for that actor.”

It’s the same for all the guest stars and cameos filling out season 3 of the Sex and the City sequel series, returning to HBO and Max on May 29. Previously announced newcomers run the gamut from Rosie O’Donnell to Patti LuPone to Cheri Oteri, and EW can also confirm the arrivals of Jackie Hoffman (Only Murders in the Building), Ryan Serhant (real-estate agent from Owning Manhattan), as well as a few other names (see below).

“All the characters come in to complicate things,” Patrick teases of the roster of guests. “There’s no reason to bring somebody on the show if they’re not going to impact one of the characters in their life arc.”

See exclusive first-look photos of who’s joining Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon, Kristin Davis, and the others in season 3.

Rosie O’Donnell

A T-shirt from Broadway’s Wicked. A bag filled with M&M’s. Times Square in the background. Yeah, O’Donnell is not playing a New Yorker. “That is fair to say,” King says. “That is not a cutting edge Carrie Bradshaw moment.”

O’Donnell’s name had floated around the minds of the writers for some time. King mentions throwing an idea out for her around season 1 that didn’t work out, but believes season 3 is now the ideal moment for her. And the character will lean into her comic talents. “This season is funny and fun,” he explains. “Comedy is always king. Drama’s there, but comedy is always at the forefront.”

Patti LuPone

LuPone already spilled the beans on her character. The Broadway legend is playing the mother of Giuseppe (Sebastiano Pigazzi). So good luck, Anthony (Mario Cantone). “If Anthony and Giuseppe are a match made in heaven, Anthony and Giuseppe’s mother are a match made in hell,” King prefaces. “I knew that I had Mario Cantone and Patti LuPone. How could they not flip a table or two emotionally?”

With Mama Giuseppe, the writers played on LuPone’s Italian heritage. We saw a little bit of that in the thespian’s role on Marvel’s Agatha All Along, for which she portrayed a Sicilian witch. “Patti speaks beautiful, fluent Italian in the show,” Patrick says. “That’s another way of icing out Mario’s character. He doesn’t understand Italian.”

Jenifer Lewis

EW can exclusively confirm the great Jenifer Lewis, who turns every occasion (even a casual morning show appearance to promote her book) into a party, joins the roster of And Just Like That season 3. King doesn’t say much about her role, mainly that series writer Susan Fales-Hill wrote the character with Lewis in mind. (Again, a couture character.)

“It has high drama and incredible comedy, but it’s also a very strong force, which is everything that I think Jenifer is known for,” he says. “She’s very present, and yet we were even able to eek in a little vulnerability.”

Susie Essman

For Broad City and Curb Your Enthusiasm standout Susie Essman — another casting addition EW can exclusively confirm for season 3 — the writers created a character that relies on the actress’ personal brand. Patrick describes it as “New. York. N-E-W-Y-A-W-K.” He also teases, “We actually did something a little bit additive for Susie, a part of her that you haven’t seen, maybe.”

Comedy queens

Adding to the talent from the comedy sector this season are Bob’s Burgers and What We Do in the Shadows funny gal Kristen Schaal and Saturday Night Live alum Cheri Oteri. Their characters, Patrick explains, speak to the types of people the core ladies would run into in Manhattan.

“Yeah, they’re different, and they’re all uniquely special,” he continues. “Everyone was up for fun. Everyone was excited to be dressed. Everybody’s so excited to come on the show because they get to look a certain way that maybe they don’t usually look. There’s always a designer element to every character on the show, whether they’re a designer character or not. They have a design to them.”

Mehcad Brooks

Season 3 explores “a lot of new vibrations” for Lisa Todd Wesley (Nicole Ari Parker), Patrick prefaces. That involves Supergirl alum and Mortal Kombat II star Mehcad Brooks, who arrives on the scene as a new coworker as LTW continues work on her docuseries.

“The women in the writers’ room were all like, ‘What happens when you have a coworker who looks like that?’ ‘What does that do to your perfectly happy, sexy marriage at home?'” the showrunner says. “Mehcad is [playing] somebody who is just a man in the workplace. The complications that ensue really come out of the dynamics of men, women, work, boss, not boss. It’s a fun, flirty work story that I haven’t seen yet in terms of how we would do it. It’s really about overloading LTW with so much stimulus with work and home and children and career and obstacles to achieve her passion of creating this 10-part PBS series.”

Logan Marshall-Green

Multiple girlies are single again in season 3, but “single” has a complicated definition. There’s “clearly single” and then there’s “confusedly single.” Carrie might fall into the latter category, since who knows what’s going on between her and Aidan (John Corbett). The same applies to Ms. Seema Patel (Sarita Choudhury), who’s man-friend left her in New York to film a movie in Egypt.

Logan Marshall-Green (Upgrade, Lou) plays a character who complicates the lives of both of these ladies, Patrick says. “He’s actually the first character that’s ever been on Sex in the City that was born and raised in Greenwich Village. He’s the only native New Yorker we’ve ever really featured. So that brings a different energy to it. He’s a unique individual, born and raised in Manhattan.”

Jonathan Cake

Jonathan Cake, the British actor who appeared on Desperate Housewives, Chuck, and Noah’s Ark, is not playing a native New Yorker. He’s directly related to Carrie’s situation in her new Gramercy Park home. Patrick teases, “Anybody who’s lived in New York knows a downstairs neighbor and upstairs neighbor is a unique situation.”

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