Giancarlo Esposito Confirms Early 2021 Shooting Start for Better Call Saul Season 6

The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul is cooking up a spring 2021 shooting start with an even larger role for drug boss Gus Fring, series star Giancarlo Esposito says in an update on the Breaking Bad spinoff. Filming on season 6 would have gotten underway last month in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but series co-creator and showrunner Peter Gould in August confirmed Saul was unlikely to resume production before the end of the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to HeyUGuys ahead of a docu-series inspired by Epix series Godfather of Harlem and the second season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, Esposito reveals he returns to Saul in March:

“We were slated to go in September, we now look like we’ll be going in March,” Esposito said. “We have a brilliant team of writers, of course, so it’s always exciting to think about getting back to work. We didn’t get a chance to get back to work on season 6. I’m so excited for Vince and Peter, and Melissa Bernstein, our producer, to be going back to set sometime in March.”

Recalling a conversation with the Breaking Bad creator, Esposito said Gilligan told him he’s “going to be busy” on the new season that continues Fring’s war with Lalo Salamanca (Tony Dalton). April’s season 5 finale, “Something Unforgivable,” ended with Lalo surviving an assassination attempt orchestrated by Fring and aided by Nacho Varga (Michael Mando) — a middle man since outed as a mole in the Salamanca crime organization.

Producer Mark Johnson previously told The Washington Post the series would have to get “very creative in where and how we shoot” due to limitations created by the coronavirus. “If many shows look different, I think that’s okay because the world looks different,” he said. “And if that doesn’t work, then at least our show has a lot of deserts and open roads.”

Despite these new challenges, Gould describes Saul‘s sendoff as a “really big, big season.”

“There are some things going on in the writers’ room that I’m really excited about. I’m so proud of all the seasons of the show and season 5 in particular, so we’re hoping for season 6 not to be an anti-climax,” he told Variety earlier this year. “Hanging over everything is the fact that I was so pleased with how Breaking Bad ended. People can’t help but start drawing comparisons between the two shows, and my fervent hope is that we’re able to stick the landing, the way Vince led us to stick the landing on Breaking Bad.”

Gilligan, who wrote and directed last year’s Jesse Pinkman-starring El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie for Netflix with Aaron Paul in the driver’s seat, is back to help shepherd the final chapter in the Breaking Bad Universe.

“I am happy to say that I twisted Vince’s arm and I got him to return to the writers’ room for a good chunk of the season,” Gould said. “It’s wonderful to have him there, so we can finish this show that we started together.”

Sony Pictures Television and AMC Networks have not set an air date for the 13-episode Better Call Saul Season 6.