Bryan Cranston has said he is “not closed” to the idea of bringing back his Breaking Bad character.
The 69-year-old actor played schoolteacher-turned-meth-cook Walter White in the acclaimed AMC series, later briefly reprising the role in the spin-off series Better Call Saul.
Cranston last played Walter in an advertisement for corn chips that aired during the 2023 Super Bowl.
Speaking to The Times, the actor was asked about the possibility of returning to the world of Breaking Bad once more – despite the 2013 finale bringing his character’s arc to a definitive end.
“I don’t know, I mean it,” he said. “I’m not closed to it, but it has to be something that makes me go, ‘Oh my, what a great idea.’ Otherwise we’ll let him go so that we can move on, all of us.”
Cranston’s comments come shortly after Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad, appeared to pour cold water on speculation that he would return to the world of the series again.
Speaking ahead of the release of his new Apple TV series Pluribus, Gilligan told The Hollywood Reporter: “As much as I love Walter White and as proud as I am of Breaking Bad — and as much as I know that it’ll be the first sentence in my obituary — at a certain point, you’re like, ‘God, it’d be nice to write a hero again, someone who’s trying to do the right thing.’”
He admitted that there are “a lot of ways to reboot Breaking Bad and even build shows around characters from Better Call Saul”, but that he was reluctant to risk tarnishing the legacy of the original series.
“We worked with such a murderer’s row of actors on both shows,” he said. “I was so blessed to work with these amazing actors. Pretty much any of the major players from either show could carry their own TV show. The same goes for the astounding actors we worked with on [the sequel film] El Camino.”
Among the actors to have starred in the Breaking Bad universe are Jesse Plemons, Jonathan Banks, Giancarlo Esposito, Dean Norris, and Pluribus star Rhea Seehorn.
“So never say never, but I’ve done 20 years of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul,” Gilligan continued. “I’m not tired of it. I’m not worn out on it. But I am ready for a hero, for a change, instead of a villain or an anti-hero. The other thing is I live in fear of messing up people’s memories of both shows. I’d rather leave a little money on the table, a little desire on the table, a little want for new Breaking Bad stories.
“I don’t want to disappoint anyone, but I’d rather disappoint folks by not giving them any more Breaking Bad than have them say, ‘Okay, man, that was a really great multi-course meal, but that last serving in the dessert bowl was dog s***. Now I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth, and that’s all I remember now.’ So I don’t want to do that. I really don’t want to do that.”
