“Better Call Saul,” the “Breaking Bad” prequel set six years before Walter White walked into Saul Goodman’s law offices, premieres Sunday on AMC.
Bob Odenkirk stars as struggling lawyer James “Jimmy” McGill for the series, set before he took on the moniker Saul Goodman. There’s a new cast of characters in the drama from Executive Producers Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, including Michael McKean, who plays Jimmy’s older brother Chuck McGill, Rhea Seehorn as lawyer Kim Wexler and Patrick Fabian as high-powered attorney Howard Hamlin.
In this new world the producers have created, there is, of course, more than law and family. The criminal element pops up courtesy of “Orphan Black’s” Michael Mando (he was the drug dealing boyfriend of Tatiana Maslany’s character Sarah Manning on the BBC America show). While it has been confirmed that Bryan Cranston will not appear as Walter White in the first season, Jonathan Banks reprises the role of Mike Ehrmantraut (“Breaking Bad’s” cold blooded fixer).
WATCH: Michael Mando, Bob Odenkirk & Jonathan Banks Talk AMC’s ‘Better Call Saul’ Pressure
With “Breaking Bad” one of the most critically acclaimed shows of all time, Bob told Access Hollywood there is pressure.
“Do we feel pressure? Yeah, yeah, sure we do. I mean, ‘Breaking Bad’ had such a loyal and intense following and I think a lot of them are going to be looking to this show and they’re gonna find the same creators and writers and storytelling and excellence in production that they found in ‘Breaking Bad,'” he said, before joking, “I can’t vouch for the lead actor, but the supporting cast is amazing!”
PHOTOS: ‘Better Call Saul’: Meet The Cast
Here are six things we learned from the cast about “Better Call Saul”:
Bob Odenkirk received advice from Bryan Cranston
“Well, you know, who else would know what it’s like to play a big role and work in that environment and with the kind of scripts that these guys write and the story that they write than Bryan and he was kind enough to sit down with me,” Bob said. “And I basically was asking him, ‘What [does] your day look like? How do you manage to do such a heavy role and with so much?’ and he talked me through it. He talked me through a week and how you prepare and just how to look at it, which is basically like an athlete training for a competition — like you’re constant measuring out your effort and building up to the moment when you’re on screen.”
“Better Call Saul” will have comedic elements
“I gotta say, I walked away from the set, and stuck in my head, and a little bit in my heart, was all the drama of this show that they’d written, this ‘Better Call Saul.’ But watching it — I did get to watch the first episode — I was reminded of how funny it is and how the situations that Jimmy/Saul gets himself into – you just, you laugh at how his tongue is getting him into trouble and how his mind — with the plans and the plots he makes to get himself out of a situation are just digging him in deeper. So watching [it], there’s that comedy, the plot comedy, and then, he is a funny character,” Bob told Access.
Mike Ehrmantraut is a “working man”…
“I can’t tell you what it is,” Jonathan said, skipping out on answering a question from Access about Mike’s debut scene in the premiere.
WATCH: Michael McKean, Rhea Seehorn & Patrick Fabian On ‘Better Call Saul’ Roles
“He’s a working man,” Bob added, mysteriously.
“Mike is a survivor and if today, you end up with 25 cents in your pocket and you have to go out and you have to do something, Mike is capable of doing that,” Jonathan added
Nacho is a criminal on the rise
“He’s a very intelligent career criminal,” Michael Mando told Access of his character. “He’s very ambitious… and his ambitions put him on a collision [course] with Jimmy McGill.”
“He’s a Steve Jobs of crime — underworld crime,” Bob joked.
“After the major computer, before the iMac,” Michael chimed in.
Jimmy/Saul’s brother is going through “a rough patch”
“I am Jimmy’s older brother, I’m the guy who made it,” Michael McKean, who plays Chuck McGill, told Access. “I’m the guy who graduated high school at 16 and went off to law school and I’ve had a tremendously successful life and I have this one problem, which is my little brother, who I have to keep going back to Chicago… to bail out, and… he’s a thorn in my side. By the time the show starts, the roles are reversed to a certain extent because he’s helping me. He’s helping me through a rough patch, which is going to remain mysterious.”
PHOTOS: Breaking Bad: Images From The Final Season
There’s a big law firm in town
As the character Howard Hamlin, Patrick Fabian heads up a powerful law firm (which Rhea Seehorn’s Kim Wexler works at) introduced in the “Better Call Saul” two-night premiere.
“We’re all lawyers and it’s my firm, and another Hamlin who remains to be seen. And… the sun shines on me, I’m a charmed existence. … I’m in charge of 128 employees, it’s a white collar law firm in Albuquerque and we do a lot of business and life is good for me when you’re on top,” Patrick said. “Chuck is a partner with me and he’s a very important part. I’ll just leave it at that. And Kim is as well, she’s just working her way up right now.”
Rhea explained Kim comes from humbler origins. “I came from not a lot, worked my way up, very ambitious, very smart woman whose known Jimmy back from when she didn’t have much. And they have a long history together and are very much confidantes and friends,” Rhea told Access. “There’s a lot of complexity to their relationship and Jimmy’s shenanigans and Jimmy’s search for his true self and the way he operates is even threating to Kim’s ambitions and her goals, but it also makes her question herself.”
Tune in after Sunday night’s mid-season return of “The Walking Dead” for the premiere of “Better Call Saul” on AMC at 10 PM. The second episode of “Better Call Saul” airs Monday at 10 PM on AMC.
— Jolie Lash
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