Gene Takavic: Last News

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains details of tonight’s Better Call Saul series finale 

Ethan Shanfeld “Better Call Saul” begins with a black-and-white sequence showing Saul Goodman working at a Cinnabon in an Omaha mall. Saul has the new identity of Gene Takavic and is in hiding after the events of “Breaking Bad,” before the spinoff series goes back to before he ever met Walter White and Jesse Pinkman.

Editor’s note: Deadline’s It Starts on the Page features 10 standout drama series scripts in 2023 Emmy contention. It showcases the critical role writers’ work plays in a show’s success. All materials (the script and writers intro) were submitted before the WGA strike began on May 2.

Michael Schneider Variety Editor at Large And of course, at the top of that list is star Bob Odenkirk, who turned what began as a guest spot on “Breaking Bad” into one of the most iconic characters in TV history. Last year we finally got an Emmy nomination for Rhea Seehorn, and the show overall has landed 46 noms over the years. But that’s not enough.

Netflix.Fans of the hit “Breaking Bad” spinoff were hit with the final episode, titled “Saul Gone,” on Monday.Odenkirk, 59, helmed the spinoff as Saul Goodman for a total of six seasons, which followed his initial four seasons on “Breaking Bad.” And to mark the end of an era for Goodman, initially known to fans as James Morgan “Jimmy” McGill, and later by the alias Gene Takavic, actor Odenkirk shared a two-minute clip on social media.“Everybody’s been asking me how I feel about saying goodbye to Saul Goodman and ‘Better Call Saul,’ and I’m not good at answering the question because it’s frankly hard for me to look at that experience, and even at that character, too closely,” the unabashedly emotional actor told fans in the video.Finale thank you from Bob Odenkirk pic.twitter.com/IFODl4bcLDOdenkirk thanked the show’s co-creators for letting him front the spinoff and for “giving me the chance.”“I did nothing to deserve this part but I hope I earned it after six seasons,” he said.He said the cast, consisting of Rhea Seehorn, Michael McKean, Jonathan Banks, Tony Dalton, Michael Mando, Patrick Fabian and Giancarlo Esposito, “made me a better actor than I am, just working with them.”“Watching them work has been an unbelievable experience,” added Odenkirk, who famously survived an on-set heart attack in July 2021 that nearly killed him.“Thanks for giving us a chance, because we came out of maybe a lot of people’s favorite show ever — and we could have been hated for simply trying to do a show,” Odenkirk went on.“But we weren’t; we were given a chance, and hopefully, we made the most of it.

Jim O’Heir is a Cinnabon fan — since his “Better Call Saul” guest-starring role required him to scarf down scads of the mega-sugary cinnamon rolls.“They brought in 100 fresh [Cinnabons] each day,” O’Heir told The Post. “One day, after one of the takes, I went to my little break area and a medic comes up and says, ‘Hi, Jim, I’m going to check to make sure your blood-sugar levels aren’t getting out of hand.’ I did end up eating a lot of them … it was so important to the storyline that the director [Michelle MacLaren] got on the phone with me before I flew to Albuquerque [to shoot the episode] to talk about it.

William Earl With “Better Call Saul” set to begin airing its final six episodes in just nine days, AMC has begun a round of promotions for the send-off to the series. As the show’s chronology begins to approach the events of “Breaking Bad,” viewers are preparing to see some familiar faces, including the return of Bryan Cranston’s Walter White and Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman.Beyond that iconic pair though, “Better Call Saul” is almost certainly returning to the unglamorous existence of Bob Odenkirk’s Gene Takavic, formerly known as Saul Goodman, formerly known as Jimmy McGill, who now resides in Omaha, Neb.