Vince Gilligan, the creator of “Breaking Bad” recently spoke out about the upcoming spinoff series, “Better Call Saul.” The spinoff will feature everyone’s favorite character, the criminal lawyer, Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk. The series will be a prequel to “Break Bad,” set before Saul met Walter White and became embroiled in the world of the meth kingpin.
Gilligan spoke about the difficulties in creating a spinoff series based on the side character.
“There’s obviously a danger inherent in doing a spinoff,” Gilligan said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “But I just love the character of Saul Goodman [Bob Odenkirk] so much, and part of me doesn’t want to say no to this world.”
“Better Call Saul” was originally intended to be a half-hour sitcom, however, Gilligan and Goodman creator Peter Gould decided to return to the one-hour drama format.
“We’re both one-hour drama guys,” he said. “So we figured, ‘Why not shoot Saul in the same way?’ Let’s shoot it in Albuquerque, let’s get as much of the crew back together as possible, and let’s do it the way we did it before so that it will be of a piece with that pre-existing fictional universe that we had so much fun creating.”
He went to explain that while it will be a drama series, we can expect a lot of comedy as well.
“While they’re still working through plot, they anticipate the series being set in an office with a much lighter tone than that of its predecessor. If Bad was 75 percent dramatic and 25 percent comedic, Saul will be the opposite. The challenge has been finding the dramatic tension in their lead character,” said the Hollywood Reporter.
Many fans of “Breaking Bad” are wondering whether or not there will be cameos of their beloved characters in the spinoff. Gilligan reassured us that it is a big possibility.
“Personally, I’d have a hard time resisting putting all these guys in for a cameo or two every now and then,” said Gilligan.
Currently, AMC is tentatively planning for the premiere of “Better Call Saul” to be set sometime between August and October of 2014.
