It’s been nine years since Sex and the City last graced our screens, though its fashions, catchphrases, and questionable themes will live on forever. And now there’s plenty more to come, as the franchise is returning to TV – but not in the way you might expect.

Leaving behind Carrie Bradshaw and the gang, the new series is an adaption of Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell’s upcoming book Is There Still Sex in the City? – out August 6. Set in New York once again, the novel will turn its attention to the lives of women in their 50s and 60s.

Due to be adapted by Paramount Television and Anonymous Content, a production date for the series hasn’t yet been announced.

“At one time, 50-something meant the beginning of retirement,” Bushnell told Deadline. “Retirement age folks weren’t meant to do much of anything but get older and a bit heavier. They weren’t expected to exercise, start new business ventures, move to a different state, have casual sex with strangers, and start all over again. But this is exactly what the lives of a lot of 50- and 60-something women look like today.”

20 years since her first Sex and the City novel, Bushnell’s new book will look at love and life through the lens of marriage, children, bereavement, and the overwhelming pressure on women to have it all. Spotlighting women who are often excluded from the ageist (patriarchal) media industry, it will be interesting to see how the show’s characters navigate modern relationships, especially at a time when online dating is the norm even for younger generations.

As the film industry seems to have run out of ideas, it’s encouraging that Sex and the City won’t just return with the same characters, though we remain sceptical that it will be all that different – and TBH we challenge any new character to be as iconic as Miranda Hobbes.