‘Better Call Saul’: AMC Renews ‘Breaking Bad’ Prequel For Third Season
Fans of AMC’s Better Call Saul will be delighted to know that the Breaking Bad prequel/spin-off series has been renewed for a third season. According to Deadline, AMC announced on Tuesday that they had picked up Better Call Saul for Season 3 with 10 episodes. The show is currently five episodes into its sophomore season.
Better Call Saul, created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, is set six years prior to the events in Breaking Bad. It focuses on Saul Goodman, Walter White’s dirty attorney. Back then, however, he was a struggling lawyer known as Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), trying to build his law practice and make ends meet. Better Call Saul deals with Jimmy McGill’s transformation into the conniving criminal lawyer, Saul Goodman, that fans saw in Breaking Bad.
Better Call Saul has been performing well in terms of ratings, with the February 15 Season 2 premiere pulling 2.7 million viewers in the 18-49 range in Live+3, which is a 22 percent increase in viewership compared to the Season 1 debut. So far, Season 2 has been getting high ratings, with an average of 4.4 million viewers for the first four episodes.
Charlie Collier, president of AMC Studios, AMC, and Sundance TV, released a statement discussing Better Call Saul and its success, as reported by Variety.
“What Vince, Peter, Bob and the entire team have accomplished with ‘Better Call Saul’ is truly rare and remarkable. They have taken one of the most iconic, immersive and fan-obsessive shows in television history and created a prequel that stands on its own.
“Watching Jimmy McGill’s thoughtful, melodic and morally flexible transformation into Saul Goodman is entertaining and delighting millions of fans, whether their starting point was ‘Breaking Bad’ or not. This series has its own feel, pace and sensibility and we can’t wait to see what this incredibly talented group comes up with next in season three.”
Better Call Saul has featured some beloved characters from Breaking Bad, including Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), everyone’s favorite grandpa who is also a fixer, cleaner, and assassin. Other characters from Breaking Bad who have made an appearance in Better Call Saul include Tuco Salamanca (Raymond Cruz), and most recently, Hector “Tio” Salamanca (Mark Margolis).
Does this face ring any bells? Hector’s back in #BetterCallSaul! Log in to watch now: https://t.co/aTdGYH1Ybepic.twitter.com/vv9yXIUJDL
— BetterCallSaul (@BetterCallSaul) March 15, 2016
Although fans badly want to see Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) make an appearance in Better Call Saul, that likely won’t happen, as Gould said that he wants the show to stand on its own. However, other minor characters could be seen in Better Call Saul in the coming season.
At the Television Critics Association press tour last year, as Mashable reported, Gilligan shared his thoughts on featuring characters from Breaking Bad.
“The sky is the limit, and any of these characters from ‘Breaking Bad’ could conceivably, theoretically show up in future seasons, but our intention is and our hope is that when they do, it will feel proper and fitting and organic. If it feels like a stunt, then we in the writer’s room have done something horribly wrong.”
At the PaleyFest on Saturday, Vince Gilligan shared that he almost added a cameo from one of the Breaking Bad characters to the finale of Better Call Saul‘s current season, but he was “talked out of it.”
“It was a perfect opportunity for a cameo. It was an organic and logical possibility for a particular someone to show up, but we didn’t do it and actually I got talked out of it. I’m glad I got talked out of it, because it would have distracted from a very important thing we were doing in that moment.”
“It killed me though. That would’ve been fun,” Gould said. The creators didn’t reveal the identity of the character… any thoughts?
Catch Better Call Saul‘s second season airing Monday nights at 10/9c on AMC.
[Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP]
