Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan isn't letting go of acclaimed actress Rhea Seehorn. After the success of Breaking Bad, Gilligan went on to co-create the hit prequel series Better Call Saul alongside Peter Gould. The show introduced Seehorn as Kim Wexler, a character who became a bona fide fan favorite over the course of six seasons. At the Primetime Emmy Awards, Seehorn had been nominated for an acting award for her work on the show's final season.
With Better Call Saul finished, Gilligan has been teasing that he's working on something new that's not set in the Breaking Bad universe. But there isn't anything stopping him from recruiting Seehorn to help with his newest project, as reported by Variety. Perhaps given his track record of success, his new series has already been given a two-season order at the streaming platform Apple TV+. Plot details have not yet been revealed, but word is Seehorn will be playing the lead character. Because this is not set in the Breaking Bad universe, she isn't playing Kim Wexler.
Gilligan is the sole creator of this new series starring Seehorn, which doesn't see to have its title announced as of yet. He is also executive producing with Jeff Frost and Diane Mercer, while Jenn Carroll of Gilligan's High Bridge Productions banner will produce. Sony Pictures TV is the studio behind the series.
Rhea Seehorn Will Play a Heroic Character
Gilligan had recently teased that he wanted to make a new show that followed a character who was more of a clean-cut hero. In Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, the stories primarily focused on antiheroes, and Gilligan wants to do something different by going back to when main characters in TV shows were old-fashioned "good guys." He was clearly talking about this project as he now says in a statement that Seehorn is the most heroic person he could think of, making her a perfect casting choice for this new show.
"After fifteen years, I figured it was time to take a break from writing antiheroes… and who’s more heroic than the brilliant Rhea Seehorn?” Gilligan said. “It’s long past time she had her own show, and I feel lucky to get to work on it with her. And what nice symmetry to be reunited with Zack Van Amburg, Jamie Erlicht, and Chris Parnell! Jamie and Zack were the first two people to say yes to Breaking Bad all those years ago. They’ve built a great team at Apple, and my wonderful, long-time partners at Sony Pictures Television and I are excited to be in business with them.”
Seehorn is not the only Better Call Saul star to have a starring role lined up for a new TV show. Bob Odenkirk and Giancarlo Esposito will both be sticking around at AMC to lead their own new shows as well. For Odenkirk, he'll be starring in Straight Man, a dramedy about a man who becomes the unlikely chairman of a badly underfunded college in Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Esposito will star in The Driver as a cabbie whose life is turned upside down when he happens to pick up a dangerous gangster for the ride of his life.