BREAKING GOOD

‘Better Call Saul’s’ Giancarlo Esposito Is Playing an Everyman for a Change on New AMC Series

“Better Call Saul” may be ending, but the Emmy-nominated actor will be staying at AMC for another intense-sounding drama series.

After over a decade of playing calculating drug boss Gustavo “Gus” Fring on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, Giancarlo Esposito is leading a new AMC drama next year. Based on a BBC miniseries, The Driver will star Esposito as a cab driver who gets swept up in a seedy world of crime when he agrees to chauffeur a Zimbabwean gangster around New Orleans. The gangster in question has a nasty rap for taking advantage of undocumented immigrants in Southern U.S. port cities.

While Esposito has managed to stay consistently booked and busy, playing a cabbie is a major departure for the veteran actor who is largely known for his antagonist roles. He’s scored multiple Emmy nominations for his work as Gus Fring, as well as his turn as Imperial leader Moff Gideon on Disney+’s Star Wars spinoff series The Mandalorian. He also plays a villain on Amazon Studios’ cult-favorite superhero satire The Boys. 

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As The Driver producer Sunu Gonera told The Hollywood Reporter, “This whole journey started as a simple conversation four years ago in my manager Josh Kesselman’s living room when he said, ‘Giancarlo is keen to play an everyman as his next role. There’s a British show he loves called The Driver. Would you watch the pilot and see if you could come up with a take you both could get excited about?’ Um, would I? You had me at Giancarlo and everyman.”

Gonera developed The Driver for AMC with Danny Brocklehurst, who co-created the original British series. Gonera and Brocklehurst are executive producers on the project, alongside Esposito and showrunner Theo Travers.

“I am over the moon excited, enthused, and inspired to be in collaboration with the stellar network and creative team of AMC,” Esposito said in a statement. “Thanks for believing in me. It’s great to be back home!”

The six-episode first season of The Driver is slated to premiere on the cable network and its streaming service, AMC+, in 2023.

Jordan Julian

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