“I thought I’d hate hearing that, but it turns out, I don’t,” Vince Gilligan says of Breaking Bad fans preferring Better Call Saul.
Following the final season of Better Call Saul, fans of Breaking Bad seem to be split on which of the two shows they prefer. Vince Gilligan, who created Breaking Bad before going on to develop Better Call Saul with Peter Gould, recently addressed the shows in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times. He revealed how at least half of the people he meets at this point say they’re bigger fans of Better Call Saul, and while he admits that was something he never thought he’d want to hear, Gilligan says it’s quite the opposite.
“Half the people I run into — maybe more than half — are bigger fans of Saul than Breaking Bad,” Gilligan explains. “I thought I’d hate hearing that, but it turns out, I don’t. The life lesson is to not overthink things.”
Fans can now fully analyze both shows and decide if they prefer one over the other, as Better Call Saul wrapped up its story last year. While the prequel series hasn’t garnered as much Emmy success as its predecessor, not winning any of its 46 total nominations, it has been seen as a big success by AMC. AMC boss Dan McDermott also addressed the success of both shows while noting how important they both have been for the network.
“It’s impossible to overstate how important both shows were to AMC network, and the business at large,” McDermott said. “For a show like [Saul] to step out of the shadow of Breaking Bad and become an equally compelling story that stands on its own — or even exceeds Breaking Bad — well, we can probably count on one hand the times a sequel series has outshone its predecessor.”
What’s Next for the Breaking Bad Universe?
As of right now, there are no plans to make any more TV shows (or El Camino-style movies) in the Breaking Bad universe. That doesn’t mean that this won’t be happening in the future, it’s just not going to be anytime soon. Gould says that the plan right now is to let the “Gilliverse” rest for a bit so they can pursue other projects, and there’s no guarantee that they ever will return to that world, as maybe it’s best to just leave it be.
“Vince and I both decided it would be good to give the Gilliverse a little bit of a rest,” Gould notes. “But we had a big board with ideas or scenes we were interested in or would be fun — and there were a lot of them still on that board when we finished up the show. Maybe that’s a good thing, though. You want to leave something you didn’t get to.”
Meanwhile, Gilligan has enlisted Better Call Saul favorite Rhea Seehorn to be the star of a new untitled series that’s in development at Apple TV+. Not much is known about this show other than that it will have some sci-fi elements and it will not be connected to the Breaking Bad universe.
