Mad Men Cast, Creator Tease the Series Finale: "It Was Surprising to the End"

AMC is getting ready to launch its highly anticipated Breaking Bad spin-off next month, so will Mad Men follow suit?

"Better Call Pete," Jon Hamm deadpanned to reporters at the Television Critics Association winter previews on Saturday. Sadly, he was joking. There are currently no plans for a spin-off. Series creator Matthew Weiner also ruled out the possibility of a Mad Men cruise, despite the cast's (fake) enthusiastic endorsement.

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That said, there are seven episodes in the final season, which premieres on Sunday, April 5. "Spin-offs aside, there is something amazing about, honestly, AMC and Lionsgate letting us do this story and letting us end it the way we wanted to end it," Weiner said. "It's going to be weird to actually get to the point where there's no more new ones but the spin-off right now so these last seven episodes."

So how will the series end? The cast let a few cryptic teases slip. "Part of our story in this last season [is], people do change, but then in a lot of ways, they don't unfortunately," Elisabeth Moss said.

Weiner said the final seven episodes will "advance the story in a different way" than the first half of Season 7, which aired last spring. "They're different because the experience of ending the show is different," he said. "The shows became so much more concentrated on these characters," he continued. "The last seven episodes, I would say each one of them feels like a finale of the show."

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Weiner hopes the finale is satisfying. "I'm extremely interested in what the audience thinks. So much so that I'm trying to delight them and confound them and not frustrate and irritate them. I don't want them to walk away angry," he said. "That said, a huge part of entertainment can be catharsis and bad things happening are considered a good thing in entertainment."

The finale elicited high praise from the cast. "It's a beautiful story. It's perfect in a way," January Jones said. Added John Slattery: "It was surprising to the end."

Although Hamm is looking forward to no longer having to worry about spoilers, he said it is "super-painful" nearing the end of Mad Men's run. "I will be happy when the shows air and I don't have to fake like I don't know how it ends or make up some ridiculous story about robots or zombies... [but] I will never be able to have this again and that's a drag," he said. "It's become, you know, for better and worse, but mostly better, just a part of my life, a significant part of my life. There's not a lot of jobs you can point to, at least in our world, that have that impact.

"This experience has been unequivocally wonderful and I'll miss it."

Mad Men returns on Sunday, April 5 at 10/9c on AMC.

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