It’s been less than two months since AMC aired the series finale of Better Call Saul after six seasons of long cons, crime and punishment in the New Mexico sun — and an even shorter amount of time since the Television Academy snubbed the critically acclaimed Breaking Bad spin-off, yet again, despite its career 46 nominations. So it’s understandable if you’re still in the early stages of grief.
But never fear, Saul Goodman — as Jimmy McGill liked to say — because actors this good don’t stay unemployed long. Almost all of the cast of Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould’s beloved drama has already booked new gigs, including one who will portray the main character in Gilligan’s next small-screen creation. We rounded up where fans can see the Albuquerque attorneys and their most notorious clients next.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead if you have not finished bingeing Better Call Saul.)
Bob Odenkirk
Character: Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman
Played: 2009-2013, 2015-2022
Better Call Saul Fate: His luck finally runs out. After Kim leaves him, following the incident with Lalo Salamanca and Howard Hamlin, he fully embraces his flashy Saul Goodman persona. He gets in bed with every criminal in the greater Albuquerque metro area, including Walter White (Bryan Cranston). While most of that relationship is covered in Breaking Bad, the prequel flashes forward to find Jimmy, wanted by the Feds, living in Omaha as shopping mall Cinnabon manager Gene Takavic and features flashback cameos by White and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) to connect the two shows. He eventually is lured back into “the game,” which results in him getting caught hiding in a dumpster and sentenced to 86 years in prison. At the trial, he finally admits to his responsibility and clears his conscious to Kim. Of course, Jimmy always lands on his feet, so naturally, his slimy Saul reputation brings him street cred in prison.
What’s Next: AMC wasn’t about to let its golden boy — Odenkirk racked up five Lead Actor Emmy nods over the years — go quietly into that unemployed night. The network greenlit the dramedy Straight Man, which is based on the same-named novel by Richard Russo, for him to headline and executive produce. He’ll play the English department chair at a Pennsylvania Rust Belt college whose daddy issues, contentious coworkers and entitled students spark a mid-life crisis. Odenkirk told Variety, “I loved the mix of comedy and drama in Better Call Saul, and this is another story with a unique dynamic and the kind of closely observed character writing and exploration that AMC has become the touchstone for. It’s going to be fun to play and watch!”
AMC brought back another former employee, Mireille Enos of The Killing, to portray his wife, who also starts to question her life and career.
Rhea Seehorn
Character: Kim Wexler
Played: 2015-2022
Better Call Saul Fate: Kim can’t shake the survivor’s guilt of Lalo’s last stand and finally admits out loud that together she and Jimmy are “poison.” She quits the bar, moves to Florida, works at a sprinkler company and throws potato salad potlucks with her vanilla boyfriend. When Jimmy makes contact after six years, it motivates her to return to Albuquerque and come clean to the law and to Howard’s widow about the fake suicide. She attends Jimmy’s trial and visits him for one last cigarette in jail after hearing him finally accept responsibility.
What’s Next: Her six seasons as Kim turned into one extended audition for Breaking Bad creator/Saul co-creator Gilligan’s highly anticipated follow-up, which nabbed a two-season, straight-to-series commitment from Apple TV+. The 2022 Emmy nominee is set to play the lead in the untitled show, described as a blended, grounded genre drama akin to The Twilight Zone.
Gilligan is tight-lipped about the plot but did release a statement about being excited to return to set with Seehorn so soon, which offers a few clues. “After 15 years, it was time to take a break from writing antiheroes… and who’s more heroic than the brilliant Rhea Seehorn? It’s long past time she had her own show, and I feel lucky to get to work on it.”
Giancarlo Esposito
Character: Gus Fring/The Chicken Man
Played: 2009-2011 and 2017-2022
Better Call Saul Fate: His gut feeling that Lalo survives the hit he orders proves to be true. Lalo eventually ambushes Gus at the laundry to get the secret underground mega-lab he’s been building on tape to expose his treachery to Don Eladio. Gus, instead, denounces the cartel, vows to kill the whole Salamanca family and grabs the gun he stashed earlier. Though he takes a bullet, he gets rid of his Lalo problem, Eladio none the wiser, and instructs Mike to find a new team to finish the lab that will make him a kingpin in the Breaking Bad era.
What’s Next: Esposito, who picked up three Emmy nominations for playing Fring, won’t need to change his direct deposit, as he booked his next job at AMC. Set to debut in 2023, Parish is a reimagining of The Driver — a British series — about a taxi driver (Esposito) who agrees to chauffer a Zimbabwean gangster known for his shady dealings with undocumented immigrants around New Orleans. Esposito, who will also produce the series and work alongside Bradley Whitford and Skeet Ulrich, told Variety: “I am over the moon excited, enthused, and inspired to be in collaboration with the stellar network and creative team. It’s great to be back home!”
He’s also expected to return to his twice Emmy-nominated role of Moff Gideon in the upcoming season of The Mandalorian and was seen in the recent season of The Boys.
Patrick Fabian
Character: Howard Hamlin
Played: 2015-2022
Better Call Saul Fate: In one of the most tragic examples of “wrong place, wrong time” in television history, Howard shows up unannounced to confront Jimmy and Kim about that afternoon’s culmination of their well-executed character assassination/career takedown just before Lalo strolls in and calmly introduces their pinstriped punching bag to the wrong end of his silencer.
What’s Next: Though Fabian told Vanity Fair he’d be back to “parking on the fourth floor or above at Paramount and standing in line to audition like every other actor,” he already has several projects in the can, including the HBO Max coming-of-age tale, The Gordita Chronicles and a recurring role opposite John Stamos on season 2 of Big Shot on Disney+. He will also play house with Andie MacDowell in The Other Zoe as the parents of the most popular boy in school (played by Drew Starkey from Love, Simon) who gets amnesia and mistakes the school smarty pants, who prefers books to boys, for his same-named girlfriend. The film is expected to premiere this fall.
Michael Mando
Character: Nacho Varga
Played: 2015-2022
Better Call Saul Fate: After aiding Gus’ failed hit on Lalo, he goes on the run in enemy territory, narrowly avoiding the twin killers by submerging himself in oil. But he is ultimately set up to take the fall by the chicken man, and he agrees in exchange for his father’s protection. But at handover, he goes off book, grabs a gun, gives one hell of a monologue in which he reveals to Hector that he put him in the wheelchair and then commits suicide to rob the cartel of the satisfaction of the revenge kill.
What’s Next: Mando will join Brian Tyree Henry (Atlanta) in a new series from writer Peter Craig (Top Gun: Maverick) and director Ridley Scott for Apple TV+ called Sinking Spring. Based on Dennis Tafoya’s book Dope Thief, the series follows two friends who pose as DEA agents to rob a country house that turns out to be part of an underground narcotics ring. The small-time score devolves into big-time danger.
Kerry Condon
Character: Stacey Ehrmantraut
Played: 2015-2022
Better Call Saul Fate: Because we don’t see a lot of Mike’s son’s widow or daughter Kaylee in the last few episodes, as Mike (Jonathan Banks) stays away when the threat level is high and because the characters appear in one episode of Breaking Bad, we have to assume that the nurse continues going to grief support group and living in the safer neighborhood that her father-in-law partially funded.
What’s Next: Condon, and her natural Irish accent, are coming to a theater near you on Oct. 21 in Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin, which excitedly reunites McDonagh with his dynamic In Bruges duo Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. She stars as Siobhán, the sister of Farrell’s Pádraic, who is dumped by his best friend for no discernable reason, a move that plunges their small island into chaos. Condon explained in publicity materials that she was particularly excited to take on McDonagh’s brand of dark comedy. “His stuff is very funny [but] there’s real intelligence behind his writing. You laugh and then all of a sudden he’ll put in a line that will completely disembowel you.”
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