Better Call Saul may be coming to a close, but the Breaking Bad universe continues to expand. At a television showcase event in Los Angeles, Saul co-creator Peter Gould revealed that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) will be appearing in the show’s final season.
“I don’t want to spoil things for the audience, but I will say the first question we had when we started the show was, ‘Are we gonna see Walt and Jesse on the show?’ Instead of evading, I’ll just say yeah,” Gould said, per Variety. “How or the circumstances or anything, you’ll just have to discover that for yourself, but I have to say that’s one of many things that I think you’ll discover this season.”
Bob Odenkirk, who has been playing Saul since Breaking Bad’s second season in 2009, also spoke to Variety about the relationship between the two beloved shows at a red carpet premiere.
“I personally feel that the two shows — Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul — are entwined even more than ever in the final season,” the actor said. “And I think that’s surprising and cool, and it’s gonna make you want to watch Breaking Bad again.”
Since Breaking Bad ended in 2013, writer and creator Vince Gilligan also directed 2019’s El Camino, which focused on Pinkman’s escape plan in the immediate aftermath of show’s final episode. In 2019, Gilliigan told Entertainment Weekly that he “[didn’t] have any plans right now to do anything more with the Breaking Bad universe except for helping Peter Gould and the writers finish up Better Call Saul.” He expressed a hesitance to spend to continue mining the same characters to diminishing returns, though stopped short of guaranteeing anything.
If the spinoffs continue, the next may come in the form of a Gustavo Fring-focused series. The revered villain from the middle seasons of Breaking Bad and the latter years of Better Call Saul, played to critical acclaim by Giancarlo Esposito, could be the next character explored at length—or at least, Esposito is putting that energy out there to see what comes of it.
In an Insider interview, Esposito said that Gilligan is open to the idea of another series, or at least not outright opposed. “The last days [on set of Better Call Saul’, I’m tearing up and looking over my shoulder and I hear Vince say, ‘You never know,’ And so, I’ve always wanted, and felt like, there’s room for material for the rise of Gus. I feel like it’d be interesting to know where he came from.”
As Insider noted, we have relatively scant details about Fring’s past, meaning there is plenty of room to investigate how he became. “I feel like he came from a really wealthy family, had the opportunity to run, not only the family, but government in another country. He had that kind of brain, that charisma, that stature, and he traded it in because he wanted to be his own man. There’s something fascinating to me about that,” Esposito posited.
For what it’s worth, Breaking Bad has perhaps the deepest bench of characters in modern television, and there are plenty of intriguing ideas for another show or movie. Gilligan has always been candid about having alternative endings and concepts in place, sometimes to the chagrin of fans. Perhaps we get to see the oft-underappreciated Anna Gunn reprise Skyler White and tell the story of her writing career after the events of the series finale. Maybe we get to see a young Mike Ehrmantraut wheeling and dealing through the ‘70s and ‘80s. (Or a Pineapple Express-style stoner comedy about Badger.)
The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul begins airing on April 18, and is split into two parts concluding in August.