Better Call Saul is widely regarded as one of the best TV series ever made, with some going so far as to say it’s even better than its predecessor Breaking Bad. While we don’t know if we’d go that far, what we do know is that Better Call Saul wouldn’t have been the same without its star Bob Odenkirk.
However, it seems Odenkirk doesn’t necessarily agree, as he wanted showrunner Vince Gilligan to recast Saul if he couldn’t return to the drama series. The revelation comes from the Better Call Saul season 6 blu-ray, where Odenkirk discusses his on-set heart attack and the very real possibility that he wouldn’t recover from his health scare.
“It was a scary day for everybody there,” Odenkirk explains (via Fandom). “I really went down. I really turned grey. It really seemed over. They would have just stopped the show if I wasn’t capable of doing it. They wouldn’t have tried to go on, which makes me feel bad! If that’d happened, I would have liked it if they got some actor to play him. Just to tell the story that they had written.”
“It wouldn’t have been great, but it would have been better than nothing,” he continued. Odenkirk was hospitalised after suffering a heart attack in July 2022 while on set in Albuquerque.
While it was initially reported that it was just a “small heart attack”, it was later revealed to be far more serious, with Odenkirk requiring a defibrillator to restart his heart. Speaking to NPR after his heart attack, Odenkirk admitted it had changed his outlook on life.
“I came out of it with a strangely fresh energy towards my whole life, like I was born again,” Odenkirk explained. “Like, ‘Hey, everybody! Let’s go back to work and make stuff!'”
If you love Better Call Saul, check out our guide to the best thriller series, or we have articles about the Severance season 2 release date as well as the Jack Ryan season 3 release date.