Breaking Bad Creator Reaches New Deal With Sony, New Project Coming

Vince Gilligan, the creator and writer of the popular TV shows Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, is staying in business with Sony Pictures TV, which produces those shows.

Gilligan has signed a four-year extension to his ongoing overall deal with the company that The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline say is in the "mid-eight figures" range. Eight figures begins at $10 million, so Gilligan is getting a nice payday here.

As part of the deal, Gilligan will continue to serve as the co-showrunner on Better Call Saul alongside Peter Gould, while he will presumably develop new content as well after Better Call Saul wraps up its sixth and final season in 2022. According to Deadline, Gilligan is already at work on a new project for Sony, though there is no word yet on what it might be.

Gilligan said he needed very little time to decide if he wanted to re-sign with Sony or not.

"I pondered my options for maybe twenty seconds, then decided to re-up," he said. "It was a no-brainer: Sony is very generous to me, they've been a great place to work and I like everybody there.

Sony executives Jeff Frost and Jason Clodfelter said Gilligan is an "inimitable creative genius in everything he does, and a remarkable friend."

"He has been instrumental in the success of Sony Pictures Television and words can't express how elated we are that Vince will continue to create groundbreaking and momentous stories with us," they said.

Better Call Saul Season 6 started filming earlier this year. Bob Odenkirk, who plays Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman, told Collider that "the wheels come off" in Season 6 and the show "explodes in a million directions."

Odenkirk told The Hollywood Reporter something similar, saying he expects the final season to be "supremely intense."

"I can't wait for the fireworks, really," he said. "Our show is a bit of a slow burn over the past few years, and [showrunners Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould] build up. There’s certainly exciting moments throughout, but towards the end, it gets super supremely intense."