The realm of TV is no stranger to spin-offs. Dating back decades, even with some of the most beloved sitcoms, networks have made a ton of money by taking characters from a respected series and giving them their own time in the spotlight. Nowadays, the biggest (and best) example of this is with “Breaking Bad” spin-off “Better Call Saul.” However, even though the beginning and supposed “end” of the series has always been laid out, considering how “Breaking Bad” begins, it would appear that 99% of the story you see in ‘Saul’ is being made up as they go.
Speaking to Variety, showrunner Peter Gould talked about the way the story of “Better Call Saul” has progressed and how he feels that Season 5 actually gets to the point where he originally saw the spin-off beginning. It just took them 40+ episodes to get there.
READ MORE: AMC President Confirms Season 5 Of ‘Better Call Saul’ Will Be Delayed Until 2020
“We have ideas about where things are going but 99% of the time we’re wrong,” said the showrunner. “Right now we’re towards the end of shooting Season 5, and we have an episode which is pretty much what I pictured the show to be before we started, and it took us more than 40 some-odd episodes to get there.”
Of course, “Better Call Saul” is the “Breaking Bad” prequel series that chronicles the life of Jimmy McGill, who would go on to play a huge role in the lives of criminal Walter White in the previous series. And if someone who has seen “Breaking Bad” was asked to describe what that prequel series might be like, odds are they wouldn’t come close to where “Better Call Saul” has actually gone. That’s the magic of the series and the magic of TV in general.
That being said, there are some definite “must-see” items that will have to happen in ‘Saul.’ And Gould and the rest of the crew have a list of those things and will make sure to check them off as they progress towards the end of the story.
“We have a list of ‘got to pay off stuff,’ and the trick is we have to honor who these people are, but at the same time, we want the whole thing to be a coherent, internally consistent story, and that is really, really tough,” said Gould.
He added, “There are so many things we have to honor and pay off before the end, and at this point we are closer to the end than the beginning, so hopefully we’ll figure it out; we do have a lot of really smart people. I will say that the ending was really unclear to me but then as we were working on Season 5, it’s possible the fog cleared a little bit, but it’s possible it may end up not being true.”
Unfortunately, even though we’re talking about Season 5, we still have months to wait. Production is already almost complete on the new batch of episodes, but AMC has announced that the next season won’t debut until 2020.