AMC Sets Final Season of Better Call Saul, New Projects in Development

AMC has renewed the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul for a sixth and final season, to air in 2021, along with revealing a number of current projects in development.

Better Call Saul launches into its fifth season with a two-night premiere starting February 23. The ten-episode fifth season follows as Jimmy McGill’s (Bob Odenkirk) decision to practice law as “Saul Goodman” creates unexpected and profound waves of change for those in his orbit. The sixth and final chapter will feature 13 episodes.

Also at the TCA presentation, AMC Networks and AMC Studios announced a partial list of current projects in development. This includes More As This Story Develops, from producers Katie Couric and Wendy Walker and inspired by their friendship that began in broadcast news in the ’80s; National Anthem, a musical dramedy following the Nordstrom family who, after falling down the ladder of American life, need to figure out what actually makes life worth living; and Sleeping Beauties, set in a small Appalachian town where a strange mystical occurrence causes all the women to fall asleep, leaving the men to try and rescue them.

Also on the upcoming development roster are Bunny, which follows as a lonely student is drawn into a mysterious clique of girls called The Bunnies and begins to partake in their strange off-campus ritual; Pantheon, an animated drama series based on short stories by award-winning sci-fi writer Ken Liu; Nigeria 2099, set in a futuristic world; and Silverbird, following an Army veteran who needs to disappear in a hurry and falls in with a ragtag collective of mercenaries on their way to Africa with a dangerous and unusual mission: to protect the most iconic animals on earth by entering into armed conflict with poachers.

AMC Studios also has projects in development for potential sale to content companies. These include The Sparrow, based on the science-fiction novel by Mary Doria Russell; Fates and Furies, based on the novel by Lauren Groff; I Run Hot, from Broad City‘s Eliot and Ilana Glazer; and Work It Out, following a long-time Jane Fonda devotee and aspiring aerobics superstar in Myrtle Beach in the ’90s.

“We’re looking for highly original visions and voices as we think about how AMC Networks evolves. The projects in development both on the Entertainment Group side and at AMC Studios all embrace people with singular and surprising points of view,” said Sarah Barnett, president of AMC Networks Entertainment Group and AMC Studios. “We will prioritize creative risk-taking that doesn’t rely on the shock and awe of sheer size, but instead delivers the surprise and delight of brilliant storytelling in our quest to stand out with human-scaled brands in this dynamic and changing content environment. There is so much phenomenal talent to discover and so many new, different, electric stories to be told.”