Vince Gilligan shares details about new sci-fi show with Rhea Seehorn: ‘No crime, no meth’

Vince Gilligan and Rhea Seehorn attend the AMC Summit at Public Hotel on June 20, 2018 in New York City.
| Photo Credit: Jamie McCarthy

Television creator Vince Gilligan and actor Rhea Seehorn are reteaming after their stint on Better Call Saulon a ‘mild’ sci-fi series for Apple TV+.

In a recent interview with Variety, Gilligan made some revelations about the concept and tenor of his new show. Though unfolding in Albuquerque, New Mexico — the setting of both Saul and five seasons of Breaking Bad — it will have “no crime, and no methamphetamine”. Gilligan is resuming the writer’s room next week and will begin filming the series this winter. The project marks his return to the sci-fi genre after The X Files and its spin-off The Lone Gunmen.

“I wouldn’t call this heavy science fiction, I would call it mild science fiction,” Gilligan was quoted as saying. “But it does have a sci-fi element to it, at its core. And there’s no crime, and no methamphetamine. It’s going to be fun and different.”

Seehorn’s character in the series, Gilligan added, will also be vastly removed from her role in Better Call Saul. “She’s playing a character who is not Kim Wexler, but hopefully people will roll with that. I’m nervous. It’ll be interesting to see how folks react to it.”

Asked to tease the plot, Gilligan divulged, “The world changes very abruptly in the first episode, and then it is quite different. It’s the modern world — the world we live in — but it changes very abruptly. And the consequences that that reaps hopefully provide drama for many, many episodes after that.”

Apple TV+ had first announced the series in 2022, with Gilligan attached as executive producer and showrunner for a two-season order. Sony Pictures Television (also behind Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul) is producing the show.