Ever since AMC issued the go-ahead on Better Call Saul, speculation ran amok over the possibility of Walter White popping up in Slippin’ Jimmy’s origins story; perhaps not as the marauding alter-ego we know and fear, but a pre-Heisenberg Walter White that was more concerned about cooking breakfast and teaching chemistry than climbing to the tip-top of Albuquerque’s drug ring.
Much like Aaron Paul’s Jesse Pinkman, key creatives behind the spinoff series – namely Vince Gilligan – have stated before that it’s it’s really a question of when, rather than if Walter White will appear, and during a recent interview with The Rich Eisen Show (via ScreenRant), Bryan Cranston himself has declared he is “all in” for a cameo.
“I owe Vince Gilligan so much. He was my champion to get [the Walter White] role. I was the guy coming off Malcolm in the Middle. If they were to call me and say, ‘We have this idea, we’d like … ,’ I would say, ‘Yes, you don’t have to finish the pitch. I’m there, what do you want me to do?’
“I know how careful they are and proprietary they are with those characters and those storylines, and it wouldn’t be something, ‘Oh, isn’t that kind of a stunt casting kind of thing.’ It would be something kind of unique and obscure and creative, and I’m all in.”
While Better Call Saul has irrefutably established itself as a different beast to Breaking Bad, there are still many elements peppered throughout AMC’s offshoot that ensures the BB spirt remains alike and well – chief among them being the familiar, glowering faces of Mike Ehrmentraut (Jonathan Banks) and Tuco Salmanca (Raymond Cruz).
Better Call Saul recently wrapped its sophomore run on AMC but Slippin’ Jimmy’s journey doesn’t end there, now that the network has confirmed plans for a third season in 2017. Surely then AMC will welcome back Bryan Cranston’s infamous character to the fold.