Breaking Bad stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul are ready to reprise their roles in the sixth and final season of spinoff Better Call Saul, saying they would return to the universe created by Vince Gilligan “in a heartbeat.” Taking place before and sometimes after the events of Breaking Bad — where high school chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin Walter White (Cranston) and his protégé, former student Jesse Pinkman (Paul), required the assistance of criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) while building their meth manufacturing empire — Better Call Saul is currently set roughly four years before Walt assumed the “Heisenberg” identity following a grim cancer diagnosis, and six years before Jesse escaped the lifestyle in Netflix sequel movie El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
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“No, I think that was it. I think El Camino was the sendoff of Pinkman,” Paul said during an Instagram Live stream when asked about El Camino 2. “There may be another Breaking Bad story, who knows?”
When Cranston, who appeared on the joint stream remotely, asked if Paul heard about plans for a follow-up, Paul replied, “No, I’m just saying. There’s a Breaking Bad Universe out there.”
“There’s Breaking Bad, there’s Better Call Saul, there’s El Camino. You know, who knows?” Paul said. “Could there be another story within that universe? Yeah, absolutely. Do I know that’s gonna happen? No. Should it happen? I mean, I don’t know.”
In the fifth season of Saul, the crooked lawyer is caught up in Gus Fring’s (Giancarlo Esposito) war against the Salamanca family, both featured prominently in Breaking Bad.
“We always get asked about Better Call Saul and whether Jesse or Walt are gonna show up on that show. I don’t know how many times we’ve gotta tell Vince we’re ready to do it,” Cranston said. “I just don’t think he loves us anymore.”
When Paul joked Gilligan doesn’t want them on the show, Cranston chimed in, “No, that’s pretty clear.” After Walt died in the final moments of the Breaking Bad series finale, a flashback sequence set during the events of Season 2 allowed Cranston to cameo in the Gilligan-directed El Camino.
Paul, a “huge fan” of Better Call Saul, admits it’s difficult for the pair to appear in the series co-created by Gilligan and Peter Gould: present action on the spinoff is set some four years before Goodman is hired by Walt and Jesse in 2008.
“You know at least where Jesse went [in El Camino]. I don’t see how these characters could show up,” Paul said. “We’ll see, who knows, we’ll see. But if Vince knocked on either of our doors, of course we’d show up in a heartbeat.”
Added Cranston, “No, I would say, ‘What the hell are you doing here? We’re quarantined. Don’t knock on my door!’”
Gilligan previously stated he has “no plans” for a continuation of the Breaking Bad Universe post El Camino and the sixth season of Better Call Saul, expected to return to AMC in 2021.
