Better Call Saul just started airing its final season this week, but AMC is already making moves to make sure Bob Odenkirk isn’t gone for long. In a new press release, AMC has announced that Odenkirk’s new series, Straight Man, has already been officially greenlit for a first season after the network revealed earlier in the month that the show was on a “fast-track” for development. How fast? AMC is gunning to premiere the new series, which stars Odenkirk as “the unlikely chairman of the English department in a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt,” in 2023.
Straight Man will adapt the novel of the same name with writers Aaron Zelman and Paul Lieberstein also serving as showrunners for Odenkirk’s third series for AMC.
“The saying goes ‘the third times a charm,’ but when it comes to Bob Odenkirk on AMC, the first and second times were about as charming, captivating and viscerally entertaining as it gets,” Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks said in a statement. “As Better Call Saul begins its epic sixth and final season, we could not be more excited by the prospect of keeping Bob at home on AMC and watching him breathe life into another nuanced, complicated and unforgettable character.”
Odenkirk is also jazzed at the prospect of headlining another prestige drama for the network.
“I am thrilled that AMC is embracing the unique scenario and characters in Paul and Aaron’s adaptation of Straight Man,” Odenkirk said. “I have loved the mix of comedy and drama in Better Call Saul, and this is another story with a unique dynamic, and the kind of closely observed character writing and exploration that AMC has become the touchstone for. It’s going to be fun to play and watch!”
The final season of Better Call Saul is currently airing on AMC.