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.