Vince Gilligan and Bob Odenkirk Discuss ‘Better Call Saul’ at the ATX Television Festival

Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul fans were in for a treat this year at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas.

Following a screening of Breaking Bad Season 2 Episode 8, which introduces the character of Saul Goodman, Bob Odenkirk and creator Vince Gilligan took the stage to discuss the character, the spinoff series, and what we can look forward to from Better Call Saul Season 4.

Here are a few of the major takeaways from the event.

One of the first scenes Bob Odenkirk remembers takes place in the desert.

Bob Odenkirk gushed about what a great opportunity it was to play Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad, and he remembered one scene from the episode screened at the festival.

“It was such a big opportunity,” Odenkirk said. “I certainly remember the scene outside in the desert at 2:00 am with the Winnebago, and grave, and the phonetic Spanish that I was trying to do well assisted by a couple of crew members who helped me say the words properly, but it was so much fun to do.”

“Being in the desert at 2:00 am and going, ‘I’m 47 years old and I’m going to get paid to pretend and wave fake guns around in the desert with a giant light way up in the sky. I mean what did I do to deserve this?’ It’s just wonderful. It’s just one of the great things about show business if you’re lucky enough to have any kind of career, is every once in a while you find yourself in a really weird place doing something really strange,” he continued.

The writers were long-time fans of Bob Odenkirk and Mr. Show.

Vince Gilligan spoke about why they wanted Odenkirk for the part of Saul Goodman.

“Peter Gould and I were such fans, and all of us writers, on the show — on Breaking Bad — were such fans of Mr. Show and such fans of what you were doing on that show that it just seemed like a no-brainer,” he said to Odenkirk.

The idea for the spinoff started out as a joke.

There were jokes about a Saul Goodman spinoff early on during Breaking Bad.

“I can tell you it was a joke at first,” Vince Gilligan admitted. “Then we were joking about it so long that we ended up in the writers room [and] we realized maybe this isn’t a joke. Maybe we should really seriously think about this.”

Better Call Saul could have been a sitcom.

“We sold the idea to AMC and Sony before we really knew what the idea was,” Gilligan admitted. “I mean, we jumped off the cliff without even looking.”

“One of our first thoughts was, well it will be a half hour, maybe a single camera, but it will be a half hour, basically a sitcom,” he continued. That sitcom would have taken place in Saul’s office with famous comics coming to him with their legal problems. But Gilligan said they felt more comfortable with drama, and that drama has only progressed over the course of Better Call Saul.

“If you’ve been watching Better Call Saul, you see that with every subsequent season it becomes less and less funny, and the idea of Saul Goodman, who tickles me to no end watching this episode, it’s a tragedy that Saul Goodman comes to exist. Jimmy McGill, if you’re watching Better Call Saul, is a much more — I have much more affection for him. He’s a much more intriguing character and he’s much easier to root for,” Gilligan said.

We might see more of Chuck in Season 4.

Odenkirk and Gilligan also took the time to talk about working with Michael McKean, who plays Chuck McGill.

“He’s an idol of mine from comedy, and then, man, he is so good as Chuck McGill. It’s the same experience as Cranston with Walter White. Working opposite people who are that good, it just raises your game. You just feed off their energy and gravity and power, and obviously he’s been at it for a long, long time,” Odenkirk said.

“Chuck McGill is just a majestic part, and he plays it majestically. It’s a crazy honor to work with somebody that good and doing the work he was doing. It made me better,” he continued.

And when asked if there was a chance we’d see Chuck in Season 4, Vince Gilligan replied, “Just might be.” Here’s hoping that will be the case.

Jimmy and Kim’s relationship is taken to another level.

Odenkirk is especially excited about what’s coming up for Jimmy and Kim this season. “If you’re intrigued by the Jimmy and Kim relationship, this fourth season is gonna knock you out,” he said.

“The only person left on earth for Jimmy to care about whose love and respect he wants to have and earn is Kim. And it’s just so well-written,” Odenkirk continued. “There are some scenes between Kim and Jimmy that are another level of writing that I haven’t seen in our show or almost anywhere else.”

Get ready for more of Gene.

Something else we’ll see more of in the upcoming season is Gene — Jimmy McGill’s newest identity who works as a Cinnabon manager.

“Gene is the guy I’m most interested in at this point,” Gilligan said.

“None of us realized we were telling a tragic story at the beginning of this whole thing,” he continued. There is a possibility for redemption with Gene, I think. I don’t want to promise it. It doesn’t mean it’s going to happen. The whole thing could end sadly instead of happily, but that to me is what’s exciting.”

—

Better Call Saul returns for Season 4 Monday, August 6th on AMC.

Check out all of our coverage of the ATX Television Festival right here. There is a lot more to come!

Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!