The Biggest Differences Between Lucky Hank And Better Call Saul, According To Bob Odenkirk

Bob Odenkirk is now going through what Bryan Cranston went through back in 2013, by saying farewell to a beloved character and embodying a new one. "Better Call Saul" was one of the best TV shows of the past decade, a masterclass in storytelling, in no small part due to the way the characters were written and embodied by the actors — particularly Odenkirk and Rhea Seehorn.

Odenkirk in particular gave us a transformation not unlike that Cranston went through in "Breaking Bad," giving us not an anti-hero, but an anti-villain who struggled with taking the easy path, trying to prove his critics wrong but heading down a morally questionable path over and over again.

Like all good things, "Better Call Saul" had to come to an end, and now Odenkirk is ready for his next role. Luckily for AMC viewers, Odenkirk isn't going too far, with the actor's next role being on the network he's called home for the past 13 years. This time, however, he's trading his "World's 2nd Best Lawyer" mug for a bunch of school papers as William Henry Devereaux Jr., an English professor at the end of his career in the upcoming show "Lucky Hank" — and AMC just released its first teaser. 

During a TCA panel /Film's Vanessa Armstrong attended, Odenkirk talked about "Lucky Hank" and the big difference between Saul and Hank, and it is a rather obvious one.

"Saul was really alone, he had nothing. He wanted Kim to love him but [...] they were never gonna be really, fully embracing each other."

Hank, on the other hand, has a family, and not even in the way Odenkirk's character in "Nobody" had a family. "I liked that this guy loves his wife, and she loves him. I liked that he loved his daughter and even though they fight, she loves him." Additionally, Odenkirk called Hank funny, and said he's "making jokes all the time."

Not that Saul Goodman wasn't funny, on the contrary, but according to Odenkirk, Saul "wasn't aware of how funny he was, he wasn't part of the joke." That's not the case with Hank, who "gets to be the wise cracker, and gets to laugh at this situation while he suffers it too."

Indeed, the original title for the show, based on the 1997 book by Richard Russo, was "Straight Man" in reference to Hank being a funny guy. According to Odenkirk, they changed it since the title can mean something different now than back then.

"Lucky Hank" premieres May 7, 2023 on AMC.