Sorry, ‘Better Call Saul’ Fans — Season 6 Delays Mean Shooting Won’t Begin Until 2021
Ever since the last scene of Better Call Saul Season 5 faded out, fans have been eagerly awaiting news of the final installment. The most recent season included some of the highest-rated episodes yet, drawing comparisons to Breaking Bad. The Academy messed up big time by snubbing Rhea Seehorn and Bob Odenkirk this year.
Better Call Saul addicts were overjoyed to hear that the writers were busily working on season 6 even during the global pandemic. However, showrunner Peter Gould dashed all hopes of seeing the conclusion of Jimmy McGill’s story in a timely fashion. He recently confirmed that despite work going on remotely, filming will inevitably be delayed until 2021.
‘Better Call Saul’ was supposed to begin filming in late 2020
If the world was running normally, Better Call Saul was set to start filming by late 2020 and premiere the final season sometime in 2021. However, extended shutdowns and strict guidelines for returning to work amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic means those plans got delayed.
“We were hoping to go into production by the end of the year,” Gould told Deadline at an event. “It doesn’t seem likely that it’s going to happen with the situation that we are in.”
He promised they were doing “everything humanly possible” to get back to work but confirmed: “I think we are probably going to delay a little bit unfortunately.”
Season 6 could be split into two parts
One way to stave off delays a little bit is by splitting the final season into 6A and 6B, just like Vince Gilligan did with Breaking Bad Season 5. This would allow the editing team to focus on a smaller number of episodes and release those first. Gould recently expressed his disdain for the idea and would prefer to keep the season flowing continuously.
We already know the final season will include 13 episodes, bringing the grand total in the series to 63 — one more than Breaking Bad had.
‘Better Call Saul’ Season 6 will finish Saul Goodman’s story
All along fans have been waiting for the moment when Jimmy McGill fully became the character Saul Goodman who they became well acquainted with on Breaking Bad. And they’ve been learning that transformation isn’t a moment, but is rather a process. The final season will answer the lingering questions about Jimmy’s journey.
Besides just getting Jimmy to the point of meeting Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, season 6 will likely explore what happens in the aftermath of Breaking Bad through the black and white flash-forward scenes with Gene Takovic.
Peter Gould shared details for season 6
Gould would never give away what’s going to happen on Better Call Saul. But he did reveal a few questions that fans should be concerned with while watching the new episodes.
Anybody who watches the show carefully and is thinking about where this is all going, one of the questions you have to ask yourself is: ‘What does this man deserve?’” Gould told Entertainment Weekly
He continued: “Not just: ‘What’s going to happen to him?,’ but ‘What would be a deserving end to this? Does Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman/Gene Takovic deserve death? Does he deserve love? What would be the most fitting end for this guy — for the show?’ Obviously, the end for everybody is death, but that may not be where we leave this guy. Is there any way for him to win any redemption after everything that he’s done?”
We’ll find out soon enough, hopefully sooner than later in 2021.
