Lucky Hank Release Date, Cast, Plot, and Everything You Need to Know
Raise your hand if you’ve kind of missed Jimmy McGill as of August 2022. We’re all sad, but the good news would be that Bob Odenkirk is coming back to AMC as Lucky Hank. This is the actor’s third initiative with the network, after Trying to break Bad as well as Better Call, Saul.
Just at Television Critics Association’s 2023 Winter Press Tour, AMC declared that the show would debut in Spring 2023. They also showed a teaser video for the show. But more about that later.
The story of Lucky Hank is about William Henry “Hank” Devereaux Jr., who is the bitter as well as grumpy head of an English department at the made-up Railton College. The show is about how his “difficult” personality affects everyone near him and, to some extent, his own life.
The show is made by Aaron Zelman as well as Paul Lieberstein. It used to be called Straight Man and was based on Richard Russo’s 1997 novel of the same name.
You could believe Lucky Hank is a spiritual sequel to Better Call Saul, although they have nothing to do with each other. This is because the success of Odenkirk’s previous projects just on the network led to this comeback. In Breaking Bad as well as its turn in Better Call Saul, he played the shady lawyer Saul Goodman, who was a fan favorite.
During their runs, every one of these shows was so popular that it became a part of television history. Better Call Saul was seen as a nice example of a well-crafted prequel or spin-off that goes above and beyond what fans want, and it earned Odenkirk several Emmy nominations and wins. If this story of success is any indication, Lucky Hank might be the third success for the AMC-Odenkirk partnership.
The movie Lucky Hank is predicated on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Straight Man, which came out in 1997. Originally, the movie was going to be called “Straight Man,” but the name was changed earlier this month.
The story is told in the first-person by William Henry Devereaux Jr. (Odenkirk), who is an unlikely interim chairman of an English department at Railton College, which is in the rust belt of Pennsylvania and has very little money. Devereaux is going through a midlife crisis, but he has to do everything he can to save the struggling school.
Mireille Enos, who was nominated for an Emmy for her work on “The Killing,” is also set to appear in the series. She will play Lily Devereaux, Odenkirk’s “grounded” and “unflappable” wife.
Hank’s life is slowly falling apart, so Lily starts to think about the choices she’s made and decides to look for other opportunities for herself while doing all she can to keep the couple’s adult child on track.
Lucky Hank Release Date
AMC says that the first episode of Lucky Hank will air on March 19 on both its TV network and its streaming service, AMC Plus. There will be eight episodes of Lucky Hank.
Lucky Hank Cast
The role of Saul Goodman which Bob Odenkirk played in Trying to break Bad as well as Better Call Saul will always be linked to him.
Odenkirk did a great job of making a character who was viewed as a complete scumbag inside the original series into a tragic figure. This makes William Henry Devereaux Jr.’s next twist as Lucky Hank’s male lead interesting. Odenkirk has recently appeared in the action movies No one else, Little Women, Long Shot, and The Post, in addition to Better Call Saul.
Mireille Enos plays his wife, Lily Devereaux, in Lucky Hank. She stars with Bob Odenkirk. Enos is most well-known for her job on The Death, but she has also been in Hanna, World War Z, and Big Love.
Oscar Nunez (The Office), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), Tom Bower (Raymond & Ray), and Chris Diamantopoulos are also in the show (Silicon Valley).
Lucky Hank Trailer
Lucky Hank Plot
Straight Man, by Richard Russo, is the book that Lucky Hank is premised on. The official summary from AMC is short: “Lucky Hank is indeed an eight-episode story about a midlife crisis that takes place at Railton College.
Told in the first person besides William Henry Devereaux, Jr. (Odenkirk), an unlikely head of the English department at a college in Pennsylvania’s “rust belt” that has very little money.
“William Henry Devereaux Jr. is the reluctant head of an English department at a college in Pennsylvania’s “rust belt” that doesn’t have enough money. Part of Devereaux’s reluctance comes from his personality—he was born an anarchist—and part of it is because his dept is more violently split than the Balkans.
“In one week, an angry coworker will break Devereaux’s nose, he’ll think his wife is engaged in an affair with his dean, he’ll wonder if a curvy adjunct is attempting to seduce him to peach pits, and he’ll threaten to kill a goose on local Television.
All the while, he had to deal with the fact that his father was a womanizer, that he had broken a promise he made when he was young, and that some of his body’s most important functions were failing. In short, Straight Guy is typical Russo: it’s funny, sad, kind, and will stick with you.
Paul Lieberstein said that at AMC’s Cold weather TCA presentation, according to The Wrap, he was inspired to tell the tale of Lucky Hank because he wanted to do something like “The Office, but with smarter people.”
The story of Lucky Hank takes place at the fictional Railton College, located in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt. The story is told from the point of view of William Henry Devereaux, Jr., who is the head of the English department at a college.
The series is called a “mid-life crisis story” because it is about Henry/Hank, who must deal with the problems in his life while doing everything he can to keep the college going.
On one side of the story, Hank’s life seems to be falling apart. On the other, Hank’s wife looks back at her whole life and starts to look for new ways to change herself all while trying to keep their adult child on track.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Straight Man by Richard Russo, the show will show how the central protagonist, William Henry Devereaux Jr., spends his days.
Devereaux is a rough person who says he was born an anarchist. He doesn’t want to be the head of an English department at a college in Pennsylvania’s “rust belt” that doesn’t have enough money.
In a principled teaser for the exhibition, we only see a nearer zoom of Odenkirk’s bearded face while his voice-over says, “I’ve always been a difficult man. I am an expert at small fights and small irritations.
That’s my territory.” From this, we can tell for sure that his character won’t ever try to take the easy way out. The short teaser comes to an end with a picture of a goose strolling in front of Devereaux’s office door. Fans of the novel will recognize this as a tad of foreshadowing.
As Devereaux’s frustrations grow, we’ll see him go through a full-blown midlife crisis. During this time, he’ll be struggling to keep his job, get more money for his department (which he does by threatening the goose’s life to get the money), and keep his marriage together.
All of this also affects his wife, Lily Devereaux, as well as makes her think about the choices she has made in her life. She is also trying to keep one‘s daughter Julie on the right path for her own life. The plot seems to be a funny mix of annoying situations, misconceptions, threats, and mischief.