Since the very beginning of Better Caul Saul, none of the key players involved in the Breaking Bad spinoff have even tried to deny that they’d love to find an organic way of fitting Bryan Cranston’s Walter White and Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman into the story of how Bob Odenkirk’s Jimmy McGill reinvented himself as the slimy lawyer everyone knows and loves.
In fact, as recently as this week Vince Gilligan was openly teasing the return of the two meth kingpins, and it’s now been made official. Co-creator Peter Gould first revealed the news at a Paleyfest event, before AMC delivered a succinct “they’re coming back” to send fans into raptures.
Grizzled Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad veteran Jonathan Banks had earlier poked fun at the idea of Cranston reprising his iconic role during his appearance at the Deadline Contenders panel when asked, quipping “why would you want him to? I mean, talk about a really overrated actor”.
If there was any destination for Cranston and Paul to make their return to Gilligan’s sun-baked universe of crime, drugs, death, and deceit, it was always going to be the final run of Better Call Saul episodes. The only real question is how and why the duo factor into the story, but audiences will be thrilled just to see them back on the small screen.
Odenkirk has mixed emotions and a tinge of bittersweetness about bidding farewell to the character for good, but at least a couple of old friends will be there to watch him ride off into the sunset.