AMC renewed Better Call Saul for Season 5 back in July 2018, about a week before season 4 premiered in August. The confirmation of the Breaking Bad prequel for season 5 on AMC and Netflix was announced on July 28 at the Television Critics Association (TCA) summer press tour in Beverly Hills, shortly after the show’s panel (July 19) at San Diego Comic-Con.
Better Call Saul follows the life of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) before he transformed to Saul Goodman, the crooked criminal lawyer from the Breaking Bad series.
After Season 4 ended with Jimmy taking the final big step in his transformation to Saul Goodman, fans are looking forward with eager anticipation to Better Call Saul Season 5 and are asking what to expect.
We’ll finally be saying goodbye to Jimmy McGill as Saul Goodman takes over in Season 5.
We can’t wait to find out how the inevitable collapse of Jimmy’s relationship with Kim (Rhea Seehorn) plays out. We also can’t wait to find out what eventually happens to Kim, and what is next for Mike (Jonathan Banks) after he killed Werner Ziegler (Rainer Bock).
Ahead of the return of Better Call Saul for Season 5, here is everything we know so far about the upcoming season, including the expected release date, cast, trailers, and what to expect of the plot of the upcoming season, including spoilers.
Better Call Saul Season 5 release date
AMC and Netflix have not yet announced a premiere date for Better Call Saul Season 5.
Better Call Saul debuted on AMC on February 2015, nearly a year and a half after Breaking Bad ended on September 2013. Since Better Call Saul premiered on AMC, it has consistently debuted a new season every year. So we may reasonably assume that Better Call Saul Season 5 will premiere in 2019 after Season 4 ended in October 2018.
But how early or how late in 2019 should we expect Season 5 to debut?
Better Call Saul Seasons 1, 2 and 3 all premiered early in the year. Seasons 1 and 2 premiered in February, while Season 3 premiered in April. But Season 4 broke the pattern when it premiered in August (summer of 2018).
However, given the fact that each new Season has debuted at least a year after the previous season debuted, we may conclude that Season 5 is unlikely to premiere early in 2019 and that the earliest likely premiere date for the upcoming season is August 2019, a year after Season 4 premiered.
Better Call Saul will also likely retain its Season 4 timeslot. So U.S. fans can expect Season 5 episodes to air on Monday 9 p.m. ET (9/8c) on AMC. For fans outside the U.S., new episodes will be available for streaming on Netflix on the day after airing on AMC.
Better Call Saul season 5 details
Better Call Saul is created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould as a spinoff prequel to Gilligan’s Breaking Bad. Gilligan and Gould are executive producing Better Call Saul with Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein, Thomas Schnauz and Gennifer Hutchison.
The production companies behind the series are High Bridge Productions, Crystal Diner Productions, Gran Via Productions and Sony Pictures Television. Sony Pictures Television holds the distribution rights.
The series, which stars Bob Odenkirk, Rhea Seehorn, Patrick Fabian, Jonathan Banks, Michael Mando
It follows the life of the con-man turned lawyer Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) before he transformed into the crooked criminal lawyer Saul Goodman.
Breaking Bad followed the rise of Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) as drug lords. In Better Call Saul, we are introduced to McGill, a former scam artist struggling to make his way as a lawyer in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The series also follows the prior lives of other Breaking Bad characters, such as the former police officer Mike Ehrmantraut, who gets involved in the drug trafficking underworld and ends up in the employment of the drug lord Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito).
Since the Breaking Bad spinoff series premiered on AMC in February 2015, it has become one of the most popular TV dramas. Season 4 ended with the much-awaited transformation of Jimmy McGill into Saul Goodman, and fans are looking forward to Season 5 picking up where Season 4 left off.
The showrunners have promised fans delightfully familiar scenes as Better Call Saul brings us closer to Walter White’s world in Breaking Bad.
Fans are speculating whether season 5 will be the penultimate or final season of the prequel series.
Showrunner Gould confirmed speculation that the prequel series is nearing its end when he revealed in an interview with the Independent that Better Call Saul will last about the same number of episodes as Breaking Bad.
“We are talking about roughly the same number of episodes as Breaking Bad,” Gould said when asked how much much longer fans can expect Better Call Saul to run.
Breaking Bad featured a total of 62 episodes split between five seasons. The final season was split into two
This means that the prequel series could run for six episodes, or like Breaking Bad, we could have an extended season five that is split into two parts over two years (2019 and 2020).
Better Call Saul has been nominated for several awards and accolades, including Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.
The series has also won a Peabody Award (2018), the AFI Award for TV Program of the Year (2016, 2017 and 2018), Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series (Bob Odenkirk, 2015) and Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (Jonathan Bank, 2015).
Better Call Saul has also earned critical acclaim and audience approval.
On Rotten Tomatoes, Better Call Saul Season 1 earned a 98% approval rating based on 65 reviews. Season 2 earned a 97% approval rating based on 31 reviews, while Season 4 earned a 99% approval rating based on 35 reviews.
On Metacritic, Season 1 earned a “generally favorable” Metascore of 78/100 based on 43
Better Call Saul Season 5 trailer
AMC and Netflix have not yet released a trailer for Better Call Saul Season 5.
AMC released the official trailer for Season 4 on July 18, 2018, less than three weeks before the season premiered on August 6. If AMC follows the same schedule in the upcoming season, fans can expect the official trailer for Season 5 to come out in the summer of 2019.
We will update this page when AMC drops the official trailer for Better Call Saul Season 5.
Meanwhile, enjoy the trailer for Season 4.
Better Call Saul Season 5 cast
AMC has not made any official cast announcements for Better Call Saul Season 5. However, it is certain that Bob Odenkirk will return as Jimmy McGill or his alter ego Saul Goodman.
Other cast members expected to return for Season 5 include Rhea Seehorn as Jimmy’s confidant and love interest Kimberly “Kim” Wexler, Jonathan Banks as Mike Ehrmantraut and Giancarlo Esposito as drug lord Gus Fring.
However, Kim may exit before the end of the prequel series.
Fans hope to learn in Season 5 why major characters such as Kim and Nacho did not appear in Breaking Bad. And based on the fact that we heard nothing about Patrick Fabian as Howard Hamlin in Breaking Bad, it is possible that we won’t see him in Season 5.
Breaking Bad characters who may return for Season 5 include Lavell Crawford as Huell Babineaux, Laura Fraser as Lydia Rodarte-Quayle, Mark Margolis as Hector Salamanca, Daniel and Luis Moncada as Leonel and Marco Salamanca.
Michael Mando is expected to return as Ignacio “Nacho” Varga. But given the fact that he did not appear in Breaking Bad, we can assume that Nacho will be killed off before the end of the prequel series.
Fans will recall that Saul mentioned Nacho in Breaking Bad (see video below).
Based on recent comments by showrunner Gilligan, fans could be getting a Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) cameo in Season 5. This is especially likely if the prequel ends in Season 5.
It is also expected that after making a brief appearance in Season 4, Tony Dalton will be playing an important role in Season 5 as Lalo Salamanca.
Michael McKean may also return as Chuck McGill in flashback scenes.
We will update this page with cast details when AMC makes the official cast announcements.
Better Call Saul Season 5 plot
We saw in Season 4 how the death of his brother Chuck McGill spurred Jimmy’s transformation into Saul Goodman, and how the transformation imperiled his relationship with Kim (Rhea Seahorn).
We also saw at the end of Season 4 how Jimmy finally regained his law license and assumed the identity of the defense attorney Saul Goodman, the character we know so well from Breaking Bad.
We also followed the dark path of his increasing involvement with the underworld.
The Season 4 finale provides a lot of clues about what to expect in Season 5.
The emotionally charged ending of the Season 4 finale signaled the end of Jimmy McGill, so fans can expect to see more of Bob Odenkirk as Saul Goodman in Season 5.
Showrunner Peter Gould revealed in a recent interview with Collider that Season 5 will follow Saul Goodman as he tries to establish his reputation as a criminal lawyer.
“[The question for Goodman is] how does he establish a reputation as not just a criminal lawyer but a criminal lawyer? And what does that mean to him at this point?” Gould said. “Because situations may require him to do things and turn a blind eye to things that Jimmy McGill would not be able to stomach.”
Season 5 will also follow the deterioration of his relationship with Kim.
Although Jimmy’s relationship with Kim did not come to an end in Season 4, the Season 4 finale laid the groundwork for the inevitable final breakdown of their relationship, which we will likely see in Season 5.
In Season 4, Kim collaborates with Jimmy to con the prosecutor’s office to reduce Huell Babineaux’s (Lavell Crawford) sentence after he assaulted a police officer.
At his reinstatement hearing, Jimmy fails to convince the panel of his sincerity. But for the purpose of his appeal, Kim advises him to appear remorseful about Chuck’s death.
He follows Kim’s advice and spends the first year anniversary of Chuck’s death mourning publicly at his brother’s headstone, looking very sad indeed. He also delivers an emotional speech about Chuck during his appeal hearing and the panel approves his reinstatement as a licensed lawyer.
“For me to live up to the standards of Charles McGilll — I mean: look at me,” he says. “I’ll never be as moral as him. I’ll never be as smart. I’ll never be as good. I’ll never be as respected. I’ll never be Chuck. But I can try.”
“If you decide that I get to be a lawyer, I’ll do everything I can to make sure I’ll be worthy of the name McGill,” he concludes, moving some members of the board and Kim to tears.
But Kim is deeply shocked when Jimmy later reveals that his show of remorse over Chuck’s death was entirely insincere. She is shocked to learn that despite suggesting otherwise to the board, Jimmy plans to ditch the McGill name and instead practice law as Saul Goodman.
Although she had helped Jimmy plan his speech to the board, Kim had apparently not realized that Jimmy’s powerfully convincing act was entirely insincere.
Kim is also shocked by the sudden transformation of Jimmy’s character as he adopts the Saul Goodman persona after regaining his law license. Jimmy lets the mask slip and shows his real character while celebrating his reinstatement.
Kim comes face to face with Jimmy’s real Saul Goodman character for the first time and realizes to her shock that she might have been dealing with a sociopath the whole time.
“Did you see those suckers? That one a**hole was crying,” Jimmy tells Kim, failing to notice his partner’s look of shock and dismay at his transformation.
The end of Jimmy and Kim’s relationship is inevitable and fans are curious to find out how it ends and what finally happens to Kim.
Better Call Saul Season 4 also ends with Gus restarting the construction of his superlab.
Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) performs a murder for Gus (Giancarlo Esposito). He takes Werner (Rainer Bock) out to the desert, and after trying unsuccessfully to convince Gus to spare Werner’s life, he performs the unsavory deed. As Werner walks away, Mike shoots him in the back of the head.
Mike’s murder of his German engineer friend signals the emergence of the hitman we know from Breaking Bad.
Showrunner Gould recently told Vulture that Jimmy and Mike’s “worlds are about to converge.”
“I think we’d be doing the story a disservice if things didn’t start tangling up,” he said. “It feels very much at the end of this season that Jimmy’s world and Mike’s world are about to converge.”
Concerning the future of Kim and Jimmy’s relationship, Gould said:
“I’m worried that she’s going to lose that, or lose her life, because we know Jimmy’s about to enter the same world of violence Mike has been living in.”
“It gives us a world of possibilities in a show where a lot of the character’s fates are known already,” Gould continues. “All I can say is [that] I’d be very sorry if something terrible happened to Kim, but there’s a lot of things that can happen to people that don’t involve violent deaths.”
Better Call Saul/Breaking Bad crossover in Season 5?
The showrunners officially confirmed an imminent Better Call Saul/Breaking Bad crossover at the show’s 2018 Comic-Con panel last July.
We saw the first hints of the Breaking Bad crossover in Season 4.
Odenkirk had hinted that fans will soon get a full Breaking Bad crossover that features — besides Gus — characters such as Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul).
“It’s coming around and it’s so close that it’s the next thing to happen. It’s so close that you can see it’s right there at the end of the season (Season 4) essentially, but it takes up more time,” he told Variety. “The Breaking Bad world is assembled very closely, almost at the end of season four. There’s a little bit of time there to go.”
Fans may get to see the full crossover in Season 5 if it is the end of the prequel. However, if Season 6 is planned
It is not yet clear how the showrunners plan for the worlds to converge but based on recent comments by creator Gilligan, Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) will play important roles in the crossover.
“We have 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,” Gilligan told EW. “I can’t wait for folks to see that.”
We may also get a hint about how Jimmy ends up in the post-Breaking Bad timeline as Gene, the manager at a Cinnabon in Omaha, Nebraska.