As Better Call Saul comes to an end this year, one of the big questions revolves around faces from the past. Recently, Bryan Cranston reflected on the experience of returning to the role of Walter White, the chemistry teacher-turned-drug kingpin, almost a decade after Breaking Bad had ended.
It was confirmed earlier this year that Cranston and Aaron Paul would indeed return as their iconic anti-heroes Walter White and Jesse Pinkman, respectively, in the Breaking Bad's successor and prequel. However, anyone hoping for details from Cranston is out of luck, as even he is unsure of how his appearance in Better Call Saul will unfold.
Cranston recently went on Live with Kelly and Ryan to reflect on the experience of playing White again all these years later. According to Cranston, he doesn't even know what episode he and Paul will be featured in because it had been filmed a long time ago and apparently the show hadn't even started production on its new season yet. Evidently, the showrunners wanted to keep it hush-hush, so they flew them both into New Mexico in secrecy to prevent word from getting out. "Aaron and I shot this episode a year and a half ago," Cranston said. "They weren't even in production yet, so they actually flew us into Albuquerque under the dark of night. We took two steps off the airplane and into an SUV, cloaked, and we went to an Air BNB. They said, 'Here's where you stay. You cannot leave.' It was so interesting. I was literally walking around the perimeter within the wall... You feel like you're in the witness protection program."
Cranston briefly returned to his role as White in 2019 via flashback in the movie El Camino, which centered around Pinkman's escape from the police following the events of Breaking Bad. Throughout the entirety of Better Call Saul, the show has given fans Breaking Bad easter eggs by featuring characters who had been in the show's predecessor. However, instead of featuring these characters for fanservice alone, they also show them to explain how they got to where they would be when Breaking Bad starts.
It sounds like that could be the same case here regarding these upcoming cameos by White and Pinkman in Better Call Saul as the show reaches its end this summer. Evidently, whatever White and Pinkman do when they come on the show has to be important enough for the showrunners to try their darnedest to keep their upcoming appearances under wraps. Since the show is a prequel to Breaking Bad, they will eventually have to connect the dots between the two shows.
More than that, Cranston and Paul coming back to this show further demonstrates the run of excellence that Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have had since starting this universe in 2008. When they first started Breaking Bad, there was no idea whatsoever regarding a possible prequel for the show. All these years later, the two of them have pulled off a prequel and a movie to expand on the Breaking Bad story, and they've pulled it off to perfection. In fact, it's arguably played a huge part in why studios are greenlighting more prequels than ever. Because Better Call Saul has perfected the prequel, not only has it given Hollywood a template to use, but it's also made the Breaking Bad viewing experience all the better in spite of each show having a much different story to tell.
Better Call Saul will resume its final season on AMC on July 11, 2022.
Source: Live with Kelly and Ryan/YouTube