Better Call Saul - Vince Gilligan's latest chatter about the future of the show

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How has the show changed since you first pitched a tight little one season semi-comedy about the Breaking Bad lawyer?

We started off the series writing about Jimmy McGill, a guy we figured would very quickly turn into Saul Goodman. And as the first season of Better Call Saul progressed we realised, “Gee, there’s a lot more story to tell about this guy.” And as the seasons went by it dawned on us that we liked this guy better, and we started to put off the appearance of Saul Goodman.

And now we realise that we have a bit of a tragedy on our hands: this man inevitably must become Saul Goodman, but we dread the day that it will happen, because it may have a large hand in why we don’t see Kim Wexler [Rhea Seehorn, playing Jimmy’s only real friend and love interest] around any more.

Maybe she won’t like Saul Goodman that much, or maybe something terrible will happen to her. We dread the future as much as the fans do, but we have to pursue it nonetheless.

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There's plenty more story to come from Jimmy as he morphs into Saul, and there are hints of a third iteration – the post-Breaking Bad character we glimpse in the black-and-white sequences that have started each of the show's three seasons. "He looks a lot like Jimmy McGill or Saul Goodman, except he's got the name tag Gene and he lives in Omaha, Nebraska, and he lives a pretty dreary life," Gilligan says.

That could be fun to explore down the line, but knowing when to quit is important. "We want very much to figure out the point where we will have overstayed our welcome, and we want to end right before we get to that point. We want to end on a creative high note."

Breaking Bad, it is pretty much universally agreed, judged that point perfectly. And while Better Call Saul hasn't enjoyed the same level of popular success, it's fair to say the critics have given the thumbs-up to the idea of a spin-off, and the choice of character to carry it.

So what about repeating the trick? When Saul – or Gene – inevitably reaches his endpoint, what chance of another spin-off, and who would it be about?

"I gotta tell you," he says, chuckling at the prospect. "Kim Wexler."

Jimmy's legal offsider and sometime girlfriend is played by Rhea Seehorn, whom Gilligan says is "the find" of the series. "She can be hilariously funny, she can be absolutely moving. She can do anything, she just has this astounding range.

"Personally, as one of the first two fans of Better Call Saul, I want to know more about Kim, I want to see and learn more about her.

"If we were to do another spin-off it would be the Kim Wexler show."

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