Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan making a “mild science fiction” series

Whenever the best TV shows of all time are discussed, Breaking Bad probably features somewhere near the top of the list. The crime drama, created by Vince Gilligan, quickly became a cultural phenomenon. That success has continued thanks to spinoff Better Call Saul, which concluded last year. With the Breaking Bad universe complete (for now, at least), Gilligan is planning his next project: a “mild science fiction” series starring Better Call Saul veteran Rhea Seehorn.

Gilligan is no stranger to sci-fi. He worked on The X-Files, so he’s returning to his roots. That said, in his new series, the sci-fi is a side dish rather than the whole meal. “I wouldn’t call this heavy science fiction, I would call it mild science fiction. But it does have a sci-fi element to it, at its core,” he told Variety. “And there’s no crime and no methamphetamine. It’s going to be fun and different. I have no prediction as to how folks to react to it — whether they’ll love it or hate it or somewhere in the vast in-between. But I know it’s a story that interests me, and Rhea will be playing a very different character than she played on Saul.”

Like Breaking Bad, the untitled series is set in Albuquerque, but then things diverge. “The weird thing is that it takes place in Albuquerque, except it’s a whole different world,” Gilligan said. “There’s no overlap that I can see. She’s playing a character who is not Kim Wexler, but hopefully people will roll with that. I’m nervous. It’ll be interesting to see how folks react to it.”

Development of the show was put on pause during the Hollywood writers strike. But now that the strike is over, Gilligan is keen to continue where he left off. “We’re going to go back and finish the second-to-last episode and then get to work on the last episode,” he said. “We lost a lot of momentum, certainly. I can’t even remember where we were exactly. So I’m going to be spending this week reading through previous episodes and old notes to figure out where we stand.”

The series is very early in production; it doesn’t even have a title yet. But anything Gilligan and Seahorn are involved with is worth paying attention to.

No, there won’t be a Breaking Bad spinoff about Walter White Jr.

We don’t normally cover things that aren’t fantasy and sci-fi, but speaking of Vince Gilligan, he recently quelled speculation about a Breaking Bad spinoff idea. Some fans have been pitching a sequel series following Walter White Jr. as he follows in the footsteps of his father and becomes a crime lord.

“That is doubtful as hell,” Gilligan said of the notion. “The only attractive thing about that idea is working with RJ Mitte again because he’s a wonderful actor and sweet guy. But that would be depressing as hell. That would be the wrong lesson from the show, if there are any lessons at all to be gleaned from it.”

As for whether we’ll see anymore projects set within the Breaking Bad universe, he doesn’t rule anything out: “In a few years maybe.” Although a Walter White Jr. project sounds like a resounding no.

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