AMC orders Breaking Bad prequel

US cablenet AMC has greenlit the speculated Breaking Bad spin-off series based on the character of sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman.

After months of negotiations, AMC and Sony Pictures Television (SPT) have now reached a licensing agreement for a spin-off to the critically acclaimed crime drama Breaking Bad, which reaches its climax September 29.

“As conceived, the new series is based on the show’s popular Saul Goodman character with the working title Better Call Saul. Plans call for Saul to be a one-hour prequel that will focus on the evolution of the popular Saul Goodman character before he ever became Walter White’s lawyer,” said AMC in a statement.

This confirms what the show’s creator Vince Gilligan told C21 earlier this year, when he said he had “no reason to believe” the rumoured spin-off series focusing on the lawyer character wouldn’t get made, adding that it would likely be a prequel.

The show is currently being developed as a one-hour comedy drama alongside Breaking Bad writer Peter Gould, who created the character of Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk.

“To my mind Breaking Bad is roughly 80% drama to 20% comedy. The spin-off would be the flip of that. 75% comedic and 25% dramatic,” Gilligan added.

“Turning Saul’s world into a 30-minute sitcom wouldn’t feel right to me. Saul Goodman is a funny character but he lives in a very serious and dangerous world, so if we gave that short shrift it would feel inauthentic.”

Breaking Bad in its fifth and final season on AMC, having won seven Emmys, four Writers Guild Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Directors Guild of America Award. It stars Bryan Cranston as a high school chemistry teacher who begins producing drugs having been diagnosed with cancer.