The co-creator of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Peter Gould revealed in a latest interview that he almost scrapped the show’s final season after the lead actor Bob Odenkirk had suffered an heart attack last year and his condition remained critical for the next 24 hours. Gould contemplated the decision as he came to the conclusion that the show can’t go forward without Odenkirk or replacing him with someone else Saul Goodman.
Odenkirk had a heart attack and collapsed on the set while filming season 6 of Better call Saul in 2021, which is the final season. The actor later assured on social media to everyone that he’s recovering his health and would return to acting soon.
Better Call Saul Was Almost Cancelled After Odenkirk’s Heart Attack
In a recent showrunner round table, Peter Gould said the following words:
“It reminds you that as preoccupied and as important as entertainment feels – and we all feel like it’s life-and-death as we’re working on these shows; I always feel like I’m on the verge of getting crushed by a boulder – it’s not. It’s a piece of entertainment. When someone who you care about goes down that way in front of everybody, it changes everything. The miracle was that Bob came back after five weeks. And he was exactly the same guy – maybe even a hair more generous…. But there can be (no backup plan). We wouldn’t have had a show. We would’ve scrapped the whole thing.”
The showrunner also revealed that the production of the show was immediately stopped after following the incident and everyone on the set were given access to counselling to process the incident.
It’s really fortunate that Odenkirk recovered completely and returned to acting, otherwise Breaking Bad fans would have lost the show’s conclusion. The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul’s mid-season premiere started recently and is slated to conclude on August 15, 2022 with a series finale.
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