Now on the verge of its third year on the airwaves, Better Call Saul, like any good prequel series before it, is slowly approaching the moment it’ll overlap with Breaking Bad – or at the very least, fill in the blanks between one timeline and another – Vince Gilligan’s brooding crime series that started it all almost a decade ago.
We’re already beginning to see signs of that intersection unfold, most notably through the casting of Giancarlo Esposito as glowering drug kingpin Gustavo Fring, though according to co-creator Vince Gilligan, the third season of Better Call Saul will be more in line with Breaking Bad than any of Jimmy’s previous outings. Variety caught up with the creative mastermind at the show’s recent premiere event in Los Angeles, and it was here that Gilligan teased how season 3 is “quite a bit darker” than what’s come before.
Perhaps the advent of Gus Fring and his seedy drug empire, one built under the shadow of Los Pollos Hermanos, is enough for Better Call Saul to plunge into darkness? Time will tell.
“Things get quite a bit darker in season three, more Breaking Bad-like,” Gilligan said. “We didn’t set out for that to happen–it came to us organically.”
As previously reported, Better Call Saul season 3 will see Jimmy McGill complete his transition to the Saul Goodman we know and fear. Bob Odenkirk reprises as McGill/Goodman and here, the actor pinpointed the moment when Slippin’ Jimmy “kind of shuts himself down.”
“There’s a big movement into the character of Saul Goodman. This is the first time he presents himself as Saul Goodman, which is actually kind of fun. There’s more of an internal movement of this really sweet character, Jimmy McGill, who kind of shuts himself down and does some very callous things that are very Saul Goodman-like. It’s just sad. It made me feel bad.”
Better Call Saul season 3 premieres via AMC on April 10th. If you’re curious to know how this new batch of episodes stacks up, look no further than our in-depth review.
