‘Better Call Saul’ Has a Unique Solution for Filming Season 6
The cast and crew of Better Call Saul have been working tirelessly on season 6 despite production delays. Creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have been working remotely with the writing team on the series’ final scripts. Now, it appears that the Breaking Bad spin-off will begin shooting next month.
As most fans know, the show is filmed on location in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Amid the pandemic, the cast has come up with a unique solution to keep everyone safe while shooting the final season.
The final season of ‘Better Call Saul’ needs to answer a lot of questions
Going into the sixth and final season, Better Call Saul has a lot of questions they need to answer. Some of these questions are from current storylines. While others are about Better Call Saul characters who are absent in Breaking Bad.
What is Ice Station Zebra Associates? What happened to Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton), Nacho Varga (Michael Mando), and Howard Hamlin (Patrick Fabian)? Does Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) get his Sandpiper money? What happens to Gene? And, the number one question on most fans’ minds is – what happens to Kim Wexler (Rhea Seahorn)?
After Kim and those “finger guns” in the season 5 finale, the fan theories about her fate have popped up all over the internet. We know that she’s not even mentioned in Breaking Bad. And her plans to take down Howard caught both Jimmy/Saul and viewers off guard.
Kim’s story becoming such a big part of Better Call Saul wasn’t planned, according to Gould. He told The A.V. Club that they never expected the series to go in the direction that it has.
“We thought we were making the story of Jimmy McGill and Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks),” Gould explained. “Turns out yes, it’s their story. But it’s also Gustavo Fring’s (Giancarlo Esposito) story. And maybe most surprising of all, Kim Wexler’s story. So those things all surprised us.”
The show has more of a relationship with ‘Breaking Bad’ than creators realized
As Bleeding Cool points out, Gilligan and Gould have known from the start that they would have to end Better Call Saul with a narrative hand-off to Breaking Bad. But as they prepare to shoot season 6, Gould says the spin-off has more of a relationship with the original series than he realized.
“And as we’re working on season six—I don’t wanna say too much—but the show has more of a relationship with Breaking Bad than I would have expected when we started,” Gould revealed.
Gould says it’s always been important to him that Better Call Saul was independent of Breaking Bad. But he acknowledges that no one would have watched the show without that connection.
“I think we were trying to keep the two as separate as we could, or at least I was,” Gould explained. “And what I’m finding is, as we go through the work that we’re doing on this show, I think it’s going to change the way people look at Breaking Bad. I know it’s changed the way I look at the story of Breaking Bad.”
The ‘Better Call Saul’ cast is living in a house together while filming season 6
While the cast is shooting season 6, Odenkirk says that he is living with some of his Better Call Saul co-stars. During an appearance on the Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum podcast, Odenkirk revealed that he is living with Seehorn and Fabian. Odenkirk and his wife bought the house in ABQ so he and his co-stars could live there while shooting the final season.
“It’s better than being alone out there. I think we all feel that way,” Odenkirk said. “I think we’re pretty great at leaving each other alone, too. We’re not in every scene together, and I leave and I come home as much as possible. And you know, actually, I love getting home and somebody, Patrick especially, will make dinner for everybody. Or if you’re like, “I’m going hiking, let’s go, we’re going in the morning.”
While they wait to begin production, Gould says that the writers are “pretty late in the season” and they “are in a Zoom room every day.” Even though he considers working on scripts remotely to be “a handicap,” Gould says he loves what they’ve come up with.
AMC has not yet announced a premiere date for season 6 of Better Call Saul.
