That Saul Goodman 'Breaking Bad' Spinoff Is Still Actually, Maybe Happening

The idea of Breaking Bad's Saul Goodman, the shady lawyer to meth kingpin Walter White, getting his own spinoff was supposed to be a joke by show creator Vince Gilligan. Nothing more. Just a joke. Months later, though, it's looking more and more like Bob Odenkirk is going to keep playing Saul in a Breaking Bad spinoff of some sort.

Gilligan chatted with TheWrap this week, dropping a few minor hints about the status of the series and what viewers could expect from the further adventures of Saul. Here's what you need to know:

The show's not a "done deal" yet, but Gilligan and team are getting close.

In this particular case, since [writer] Peter [Gould] created the character, it felt more than right to be working with him on this, and we are plugging away coming up with a pitch and a take on it for the network and studio and hopefully everyone will agree that there's a really fun show to be had here. And hopefully we'll get it up and running, and then Peter will run it. I'd love to see that happen.

They're still trying to figure out if a Saul spinoff would be an hour-long drama or a half-an-hour comedy. 

There's a way to make it a half-hour show and make it a little more -- I don’t want to say sitcom-y, but a little more traditionally half-hour comedic. Or there's a way to do it where it fits more snuggly in with the "Breaking Bad" universe, in which it's an hour-long show.

Gilligan won't reveal if the show would be a sequel or a prequel, pretty much because he doesn't want to give away whether or not Saul makes it out of Breaking Bad's series finale alive.

When the dust settles at the end of our final eight episodes, where everybody's gonna be and who's gonna be left standing. I can't even say for sure that it could be a sequel. It may be, it may not.

If the spinoff is a prequel, there's a chance that we could see Giancarlo Esposito reprise his role as the villainous Gus Fring. Which would be pretty awesome.

Any chance I get to work with Giancarlo again, I would jump at the opportunity. He is a wonderful actor and such a sweet guy. … It's kind of one of those "duh" moments where you think, 'Of course he's not Gus Fring, he's an actor. He's a very good actor.' 

Breaking Bad returns to AMC for its final run of episodes on Sunday, Aug. 11.