As Emma Thompson told Reuters on the red carpet UK premiere of Beauty and The Beast (Thompson is playing Mrs. Potts), she had discussed coming back with Richard Curtis — the writer and director of Love Actually who is returning for the sequel — but both of them felt it would be too sad given Rickman’s still recent passing.
In Love Actually, Emma Thompson played a woman named Karen, whose husband (Alan Rickman) begins pursuing another woman.
It’d be next to impossible to include Thompson without explaining Rickman’s absence, and that was something no one was ready to do yet.
Thompson’s role was directly tied to Rickman, who sadly passed away last year from cancer.