Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito Addresses Possible Gus Spinoff

More than a decade after Walter White and Gus Fring's explosive final face off on Breaking Bad, actor Giancarlo Esposito still hopes to return to the BBU (and the ABQ) for The Rise of Gus. Esposito — who portrayed buttoned-up Los Pollos Hermanos proprietor and meth manufacturer Gustavo Fring on both Breaking Bad and prequel Better Call Saul — has pitched his own prequel centered on Gus' mysterious past, from his shadowy years in Chile to his earliest dealings with the Mexican cartel and his ascension through the drug-dealing underworld. 

"Should there be [a Gus spinoff]? I think, eventually, there should be, and there might be," Esposito told Variety at the 75th Emmy Awards. "I have a lot of premises I like to push. If I were talking to [Breaking Bad creator] Vince Gilligan right now, I would tell him The Rise of Gus. Wait a few years — he's doing another show — and then come back to me. Because the rise of Gus is interesting, to find out what are the pieces that made up Gustavo Fring, and where did he come from in terms of his relationship to the hierarchy in Chile would be very interesting. And to see his family background." 

Gilligan's next series (starring Saul's Rhea Seehorn) is described as a sci-fi-tinged original akin to The Twilight Zone with "no crime, and no methamphetamine," while Esposito is returning to AMC with his own crime thriller series, Parish. (For now, Gilligan is content to close the door on the Breaking Bad Universe after a nearly 15 year-long run between Breaking Bad, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, and Better Call Saul.) 

If or when Gilligan and Saul co-creator Peter Gould wish to break bad again, Esposito is waiting and willing to document Gus' formative years.

"I've always kept these [Breaking Bad] pillars in my head, as much as I've wanted so much as an actor to explore Gus's previous life — Gus' life in Chile, all these things. There is a yearning inside me, and I keep coming back to the Rise of Gus," the actor told EW in 2022. "It fits the puzzle, and we could see where he had come from and maybe explore more of who he really is underneath the mask. [Gould and Gilligan] have exactly said that — it's not over till it's over, and you never know."

"I totally believe that they should take a break. It's an intense world to live in for a while. And they both have skills in other areas and should tell those stories too," he continued. "But I'm not averse to one day coming back to [Gus]. I just hope if that is supposed to happen, that it's sometime before I'm 90."