Weeks ago 'Breaking Bad' fans were surprised (and a bit apprehensive) to hear that series creator Vince Gilligan had given serious thought to the idea of a spinoff for fan-favorite character Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), presumably implying the character's survival of the upcoming final episodes. As the 'Breaking Bad' series finale approaches, does Gilligan have any concerns a 'Better Call Saul' spinoff would hurt the franchise?

The gritty tone and well-structured narrative of AMC's flagship drama 'Breaking Bad' initially made the idea of a spinoff laughable, but Gilligan recently revealed he had begun considering such a side-series for criminal lawyer Saul Goodman. Any talks on the project remain preliminary for the moment, but Gilligan recently spoke with Empire on the matter, assuring fans a Saul-centric spinoff wouldn't necessarily dilute the quality of its parent series.

We would do out very best to make it a very good show indeed, as we always do with Breaking Bad, but if it doesn’t come out quite as good then… well, we’ll move heaven and earth to make it every bit as high quality as Breaking Bad, but then there’s the intangible question of whether it’ll affect people, whether it’ll move people as much as the mothership show did, and there’s no real answer to that. In fact, the safest answer to that is: 'Probably not to the same level.'

Then you ask yourself, 'Does that mean it’s not worth doing?' I think it is indeed worth doing, and the way to approach it is by knowing that it’s not going to be the same thing. It’s not to be completely of a piece with the original show, but if it’s a challenge, and it’s interesting to us to do it, that’s reason enough. Worst case scenario, it’s like the spin-off to M*A*S*H, AfterMASH, that nobody remembers – and I don’t think it hurt M*A*S*H any that it existed. I don’t think we’re going to have that problem, though. Anything based around the character of Saul Goodman and any show starring the wonderful Bob Odenkirk has more than an even chance of being quite good indeed.

The final eight episodes of 'Breaking Bad' will premiere on AMC beginning August 10, but what say you? Would you want to see a Saul spinoff, even if it didn't share the same tone as the series it originated from?

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