‘Better Call Saul’ Creator Vince Gilligan Teases ‘Bumpy Ride’ in Season 4

Better Call Saul is going to be “darker” as season 4 brings the series closer to orbit with the world of Breaking Bad.

Jimmy McGill is continuously getting one step closer to becoming Saul Goodman, the attorney for chemist-turned-meth dealer Walter White, and as the events of season 3, including the death of his brother Chuck, push the completion of that metamorphosis even closer, series creator Vince Gilligan is warning fans to prepare for a “dark” and “bumpy” season 4.

“Get ready for a bumpy ride. Prepare yourself for a show that’s not going to be as funny as it once was,” Gilligan told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a show that gets more dramatic and gets darker with every season. Sometimes we wish it were otherwise.”

While Gilligan said the series looks “for humor anytime we can legitimately find it, any place we can find it,” just as they did with Breaking Bad, Jimmy McGill’s story is one that has very little room for humor in it.

“It really didn’t dawn on us for about the first season or so, but this journey that Jimmy is on toward becoming Saul Goodman is a tragedy. It’s a tragic story,” Gilligan said.

“When we started this show, we thought, ‘It’s Saul Goodman! He’s fun! He’s got the chi machine that he lies on the floor of his office and he’s getting a massage, and he’s just a colorful buffoon …’ It’s gotten to the point [where] I kind of dread having this guy show up completely. I like Jimmy McGill so much better. If you want to have a beer with Jimmy McGill, you probably want to hit Saul Goodman with a beer truck.”

The series, which first began airing in 2015 as a prequel to Breaking Bad, centers on mall-time attorney Jimmy McGill and his gradual transformation into Saul Goodman, who acted as attorney for Walter White in the mothership series. As the series begins to enter the orbit of Breaking Bad, Gilligan also teased that the likelihood of worlds colliding is getting greater.

“I think the audience is in for some real treats, as the Breaking Bad world comes shuddering against the Better Call Saul world, much like the Titanic and the iceberg,” he said.

While the series has not yet completely entered Breaking Bad’s timeline, Gilligan said there is a subplot that “very squarely gets into Breaking Bad territory and brings us into the world — or at least points us on a path toward the world of Walter White and the territory of Walter White. I can’t wait for folks to see that. It’s a really interesting subplot that is squarely in the Breaking Bad world.”

Better Call Saul Season 4 premieres on Monday, Aug. 6 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC.