Walter White's legacy received more than a proper ending with Breaking Bad's series finale, though if creator Vince Gilligan has his way it may not be the last we see of the man behind Heisenberg.
In an interview with the New York Daily News, the showrunner revealed his hopes to bring the character back again through his new spin-off series Better Call Saul, which he co-runs with Peter Gould. But, for the moment, he says, "I have to be coy."
"It would be great to see Walter White on Better Caul Saul,” Gilligan said. "It would be a shame if the show had its run — hopefully a very long run — and he never appeared."
Besides, of course, Saul Goodman/Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk), Gilligan and Gould already have brought Mike Ehrmentraut (Jonathan Banks) as a lead, and also briefly returned Tuco (Raymond Cruz) and a few of his henchmen (Cesar Garcia, Jesus Payan Jr.). As seen by the very first scene, though, Better Call Saul can be a sequel series in addition to a prequel. So this means characters can come back as their future selves. Though if White were to return, one assumes it would have to be in the before portion of the series opposed to the latter, particularly giving how he left things at the end of his original AMC program.
Knowing White and Goodman never met prior to when they did in Breaking Bad's second season, however, it'll be curious to see how Gilligan can accomplish this task and make it worthwhile to the fans and also for Bryan Cranston's time. To his credit, though, he knows the stakes.
“All of the wonderful characters who may eventually appear on Better Call Saul will appear when it is most organic and fitting to the storytelling of Better Caul Saul and also when we can work out scheduling issues with actors,” he said. “I would love to see that personally.”
Even if Cranston can't appear in front of the camera, however, there's a chance he may come back behind it. Of course it all seems to come down to timing and scheduling, but the creator and his team are aware of this at least.
"We are greedy because we would love to see Bryan direct an episode aside from acting in (the show) at some point," Gilligan confessed.
Better Call Saul was renewed for a second season before the first was even completed. There's no word yet on when AMC airs this latest batch of episodes, but in a different interview with Moviefone, Gilligan noted he and his team "find Jimmy is just as interesting to us....as Saul ever was," and they're "in no particular hurry to get rid of Jimmy and go strictly to Saul."
Although both Walter and Jesse were rumored to come onto Better Call Saul before, this is the first time the creator himself has given a more confirmatory notion of them returning to the universe.
Image courtesy of INFphoto.com