Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston would return to the Walter White role “in a second” for Better Call Saul, saying “we’ll see what happens” when the Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould-created prequel spinoff returns with its sixth and final season in 2021. The cancer-stricken high school science teacher turned meth manufacturer was — spoilers — killed in the series finale of Breaking Bad, taking place years after present action on the mid 2000s-set Saul, and Cranston briefly reprised the role years later opposite Walt’s embattled criminal partner Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) during a flashback sequence revealed in El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.
“I would be in it if Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould, who are co-executive producers on it, wanted me to be in it. I would do it in a second,” Cranston told Collider while promoting new Disney+ movie The One and Only Ivan. “But it hasn’t happened yet, I can tell you, and we’ll see. I don’t know. There’s one more season to go and we’ll see what happens!”
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Asked if he’ll become involved with Saul in a behind-the-scenes capacity after directing multiple episodes of Breaking Bad, Cranston answered, “I have been asked to direct an episode every single season and it just didn’t work out because of a commitment to doing a play or doing a movie or something, so I wasn’t able to section out the times available.”
“But I do love the show,” he added. “I think it’s a fantastic show.”
Set mostly before the events of Breaking Bad, the spinoff focuses on Walt’s future “criminal lawyer” Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), formerly Jimmy McGill, who along with Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) orbits the New Mexico drug trade involving such key Bad players as fixer Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and drug lord Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). Saul sometimes peeks into a post-Breaking Bad world, where Jimmy-slash-Saul lives in hiding under the assumed name of Gene Takavic.
During a recent virtual meet up between Cranston and Paul, the Breaking Bad stars admitted it would be difficult to include their characters in Saul because Walt and Jesse didn’t hire Goodman’s services until circa 2008, during the second season of Breaking Bad. However they might appear, both actors hope to return in what is expected to be the sendoff for the Breaking Bad Universe.
“We always get asked about Better Call Saul and whether Jesse or Walt are gonna show up on that show,” Cranston said during his Instagram Live stream with Paul. “I don’t know how many times we’ve gotta tell Vince we’re ready to do it.” In a joking tone, he added, “I just don’t think he loves us anymore.”
After reintroducing lawman Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), Walt’s brother-in-law, in the fifth season of Saul, Gould recently teased more character returns for the show’s final season expected to air in 2021.
