Vince Gilligan's Next Show "Couldn't Be More Different" Than Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul

Cameron Bonomolo

08/09/2022 09:00 pm EDT

"All Bad things must come to an end." That was the tagline for the final season of creator Vince Gilligan's Breaking Bad, which concluded with 2013's "Felina" after 62 episodes and five seasons on AMC. But the acclaimed and addictive drama, about high school chemistry teacher turned amateur meth cook and drug kingpin Walter White (Bryan Cranston), spawned two spinoffs. There is El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, which Gilligan wrote and directed to wrap up the story of Heisenberg's criminal accomplice Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), and the Breaking Bad prequel/sequel Better Call Saul, centered on criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk).

And by the end of the Better Call Saul series finale, titled "Saul Gone," the Breaking Bad-verse will be just that: S'all gone.

"As bittersweet a thing as this is to say, I'd like to take a break from the Better Call Saul/Breaking Bad world because we have three additions to that world I'm very proud of," Gilligan, who wrote and directed Monday's penultimate episode of Saul, told AMC.com about what may have been his goodbye to Breaking Bad. "Obviously we have the two shows and we've got El Camino the movie, and I don't want to press my luck. I feel like we've got 127 hours of work that I couldn't be more proud to have been a part of. Sixty-two episodes of the first show, 63 of the second, and then a two-hour movie."

Gilligan co-created Better Call Saul with showrunner Peter Gould, who wrote and directed the series finale airing August 15 on AMC. Set in November 2010 — two months after Walt's fate is revealed in Breaking Bad's "Felina" — Gould's "Saul Gone" isn't just the end for Jimmy McGill, a.k.a. Saul Goodman, a.k.a. wanted fugitive Gene Takovic. After nearly 15 years, it's the closing chapter of the bigger Breaking Bad universe.

After a total of 127 hours — which the filmmaker noted is "the exact amount of time it took that poor guy [Aron Ralston] to decide to saw his own arm off" — Gilligan confirmed he's "working on something new."

"I'm going to be pitching it soon and it could not be more different than Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, and I'm hoping it sells and I'm hoping people like it," Gilligan said. "You just never know, but I'd be very excited to see it get made."

He added: "I guess secretly in my heart of hearts, I'd like to revisit Breaking Bad at some point, but I think it would have to be years from now. I think I need to prove to myself I'm not a one-trick pony."

Gilligan, who co-wrote the 2008 Will Smith-starring superhero movie Hancock, served as a writer, producer, and director on The X-Files, co-creating its short-lived spinoff series The Lone Gunmen. Post-Breaking Bad, Gilligan and House creator David Shore teamed for the Michigan-set drama Battle Creek, which aired 13 episodes in 2015 before being canceled by CBS.

Better Call Saul's series finale, "Saul Gone," premieres Monday, August 15 on AMC and AMC+.

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