The highly-anticipated Breaking Bad-spinoff, Better Call Saul is a less than a month from its Feb. 8 premiere and the creators are being a bit more open about the shows details. For instance and perhaps most importantly, showrunner Peter Gould answered one of the asked about questions about the show’s first season. ”Walt and Jesse will not appear in season one,” he said during the Television Critics Association press tour on Saturday. “We really want this to stand on it’s own … not saying it’s never going to happen.” Jonathan Banks who played the stoic hitman Mike begged to differ, “I’m saying it’s never gonna happen.”

Check out the extended trailer for AMC’s ‘Better Call Saul’ series

The idea is that Gould and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan are trying to avoid cameos that come off as like a stunt. “Our intention and our hope is that it will feel proper and organic,” Gilligan explained. ”If it feels like a stunt, then we in the writer’s room will feel like we have done something wrong,” he continued. This is probably for the better, as the pressures of pulling off a successful spin-off derive from the series not using previous success as a crutch — but these aren’t your average writers. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

Gould revealed that the writers have a cork board featuring all of the Bad characters they could potentially bring back, “from the big ones like Jesse and Walt to the small ones you might not remember, like Wendy.”

Better Call Saul has a lot of ground to cover, as the majority of the series will focus on the sleazy origins of Saul Goodman/Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), six years prior to the events of Breaking Bad, as well as after.

“I don’t know if the world is going to like this thing, but I really do. I’m really proud of it,” Gilligan said. “It’s a goddamn good show in my opinion.”

Catch the two-night premiere of Better Call Saul on Feb. 8 & 9 at 10 p.m. (EST) on AMC.

 

You can find Khari Clarke at your local pizza shop and on Twitter (@KINGCLARKEIII).