‘Breaking Bad’ Creator Considered Killing Walt Jr.

Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan contemplated killing off Walt Jr., a.k.a. Flynn, after actor [...]

Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan contemplated killing off Walt Jr., a.k.a. Flynn, after actor RJ Mitte suggested Walter White's (Bryan Cranston) breakfast-loving teenaged son should be be killed.

"I kind of pitched [the idea]. They were talking about someone, and I said, 'Well, Junior would be a good one to kill,'" Mitte said during the Breaking Bad 10-year anniversary cast reunion on Conan, earning shocked surprise from Mitte's onscreen mom Anna Gunn.

Asked who would kill Junior, Mitte answered, "I was hoping someone good. Someone had to be good." Mitte wanted to be taken out by mute twins Leonel and Marco Salamanca (played by Daniel and Luis Moncada).

"I was assuming, because I read it, and I was like, 'Oh, my part, I don't have a lot in any of this script, in all the seasons,' I'm like, 'Oh man, I'm losing lines,'" Mitte said. "And then these guys show up and I'm like, 'Wait, I'm next!' No one was safe on this show."

Gilligan admitted he pondered the idea, but said the creative team "hadn't figured out" who would be Junior's killer — or killers.

"And by the way," Gilligan said to Mitte, "you realize once you get killed, you don't get paid anymore, right?"

"Early on, I pitched to my writers — I had this idea where Walter Jr., there's this horrible, you know, he gets killed by this nasty guy that Walt is somehow in business with, and I had this whole thing — it would take too long to even pitch it here — and all my writers looked at me like I had completely lost my mind and was the most horrible person who ever lived," Gilligan said.

"The old saying, 'Enough people tell you you're drunk, you need to sit down,' my writers essentially told me I was drunk."

Mitte's Junior ultimately survived the series, with his meth-cooking criminal father the lone casualty of the immediate White family.

The assembled cast visited San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Breaking Bad's debut. The fan-favorite drama continues in prequel-spinoff-sequel Better Call Saul, focused on Bob Odenkirk's slippery criminal lawyer.

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