Jesse Pinkman star Aaron Paul says fans shouldn’t expect a sequel series after El Camino, the Netflix movie that picks up where the five-season Breaking Bad left off with its series finale in 2013.
“I thought we finished that story six years ago. And now I zipped on the skin again,” Paul told The Guardian, where he said Breaking Bad creator and El Camino writer-director Vince Gilligan had more story to tell. “People were just so passionate, and wanted answers. Asking when the next series of Breaking Bad was gonna be — you can put that dream away — wanting to know what happens to Jesse. And what happened to Jesse.”
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For Paul, it’s fitting that the continuation comes in the form of a Netflix movie: he credits Breaking Bad‘s addition to the streaming service as a pivotal moment in his career. “When the first three [seasons] landed on Netflix, my life changed,” he said.
His love for Breaking Bad meant he didn’t have to be swayed to revisit Jesse, who was last seen parting ways with dying former criminal partner Walter White (Bryan Cranston) before racing away from the compound where he spent many months as a slave forced to produce high-quality meth.
“I love the way the show ended — that it left it very vague. You’d like to think he’s riding off into the sunset, but you know life isn’t going to be that easy for him,” Paul said in an interview with Time. “People, almost on a daily basis, ask me, ‘What happened to Jesse?’ My response is, ‘I have no idea. In reality, he’s probably on the run and in hiding. His fingerprints were all over that murder scene.’ But I fantasized that he was just living in the woods somewhere, maybe working with his hands again, creating things with wood.”
Paul had “zero” trepidation continuing a story originally put into motion in Breaking Bad‘s first season in 2008. “I think any fan of Vince trusts him,” Paul said. “He’s not going to do something for no reason. It was this itch that he just had to scratch; the one unanswered question that he was living with.”
Paul is also proud to say his acting ability improved over the course of Breaking Bad and in the six years since the show ended in September 2013.
“Just rewatch the show and you can instantly find out: I am definitely a better actor from when I began,” he said. “But when you are working with material coming from Vince Gilligan, it’s nearly impossible to not spread your wings.”
The Netflix Television Event El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie reunites fans with Jesse Pinkman (Emmy-winner Aaron Paul). In the wake of his dramatic escape from captivity, Jesse must come to terms with his past in order to forge some kind of future. This gripping thriller is written and directed by Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad. The movie is produced by Mark Johnson, Melissa Bernstein, Charles Newirth, Diane Mercer and Aaron Paul, in association with Sony Pictures Television.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie releases Friday, Oct. 11 on Netflix.
