Bryan Cranston Reveals Return as Breaking Bad's Walter White for Super Bowl

By Russ Burlingame

Bryan Cranston took to social media today to share a first look at his Super Bowl commercial, in which he will suit up as Walter White from Breaking Bad and sell PopCorners, a popcorn snack from Frito Lay. This return marks the second time Cranston has embraced the absurdity of a return to one of his old characters, with a bonus feature from the Breaking Bad final season Blu-ray showing him and his Malcolm in the Middle co-star Jane Kaczmarek waking up from a "dream" in a parody of the final episode of Newhart. The implication -- something that had been a humorous fan theory on the internet for years -- was that Hal from Malcolm was dreaming Breaking Bad the whole time.

Super Bowl ads are a popular venue for this kind of thing. In recent years, Macaulay Culkin has returned to the role of Kevin McCallister, and Bruce Willis even stepped back into the shoes of John McClane.

"We are excited to revive one of the most famous television shows of all time to tell the PopCorners' story for the first time at the Super Bowl... and we can't wait to see fans' reactions to who and what's coming," a statement from Frito-Lay VP of marketing Rhasheda Boyd read when the deal was announced.

You can see it below.

Recently, Cranston's Breaking Bad co-star talked about the possibility of coming back to his role, after a brief cameo in the finale of Better Call Saul.

"It's kinda like reconnecting with a very familiar friend. You can be away from that friend for some time, but when you are back in each other's company, it's like no time has passed," Paul explained after cameoing near the end of the show. "We all know our characters so well having played them for years, so it felt good. I love Pinkman. He will always have a special place inside of me, but I can confidently say that [Better Call Saul] was the last time we're going to see Pinkman. So it was a nice farewell"

He added, "It was such a fun ride. When we were finishing up Breaking Bad, Michael Slovis, our incredible DP, gave us all this really beautiful wrap gift and a note with a Dr. Suess quote that said, 'Don't cry because it's over; smile because it happened.' So I'm holding on to that."

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