Vince Gilligan Has “No Plans” to Continue ‘Breaking Bad’ Universe After ‘Better Call Saul’

This Monday, August 15, will mark the final ever episode of Better Call Saul, and tensions have never been higher for this fandom. With one episode to go, fans still don’t know whether Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) and Kim (Rhea Seehorn) will live, die, or get away with everything consequence-free. Days before the finale, Better Call Saul’s showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould as well as Odenkirk and Seehorn made an appearance at the Television Critics Association’s 2022 summer tour. During their panel, they confirmed what fans have been afraid of: Better Call Saul may be the official end of the Breaking Bad universe.

“You can’t keep putting all your money on red 21 over and over again,” Gilligan said. “I feel like we probably pushed it doing a spinoff to Breaking Bad. I could not be more happy with the results. And then I did El Camino, and I’m very proud of that too. But I’m starting to sense you gotta know when to leave the party. You don’t want to be the guy with the lampshade on your head… I don’t have any plans right now to do anything more with this universe. I know I was asked that at the end of Breaking Bad; I gave the same answer. I gotta prove to myself that I’ve got something else in me, [that] I’m not a one-trick pony.”

Despite wanting to move away from Breaking Bad, Gilligan clarified that he still wants to keep working with the team he’s built. “I want to keep the band together no matter what, but with a different universe, a different story.”

Better Call Saul co-showrunner Peter Gould agreed. “There are some other things that I want to try,” Gould said. “Having said that, I love Albuquerque. I love Bob, I love Rhea, I love Vince, I love the whole group. So we’ll keep as much of the band together as we can. And also never say never. Who knows how we’re going to feel in a couple of years?”

Even if Better Call Saul’s finale will truly be the last time we see these characters, it sounds as if this universe will be ending on a high note. When asked about the tone of the last episode, both Gillian and Gould assured TCA members that this finale will be worth it.

“I had very little to do with it. Peter wrote and directed it and he’s a modest gentleman, so he’s not going to talk about how friggin’ great it is. It is awesome. I can’t wait for people to see it,” Gilligan teased. “I’m not as anxious, nearly, as I was with Breaking Bad because I feel — I don’t know. I’m getting older. Some of the pressure — I’ve just got other things to worry about with the world ending and stuff like that. I can’t wait to see how people are going to react to this. I’m so proud of it. Peter did a fantastic job.”

“It was a privilege to get to work with all of these people, to work with the best cast and crew in television. It’s the ideal situation for any director,” Gould added.

“I’m not stressed out, and I haven’t been since I read it,” series lead Odenkirk said. “Because you and the writers have found a way to deliver on the heart of the show. I think the other reason I’m not stressed out is, over the course of six years, I feel like the audience has been amazing, just amazing. They’re dialed in to what this show is about. You know, Breaking Bad is such a huge, monster show, and it is a cornerstone of, really, television. So I was always concerned about that show casting the wrong dimension on our show as we found our feet. But I don’t think it’s happened.”

The final episode of Better Call Saul premieres on AMC and AMC+ Monday, August 15.