Breaking Bad's Future Addressed By Creator As Spinoff Question Lingers After Better Call Saul
Matthew Perez Creator Vince Gilligan candidly addresses whether more Breaking Bad spinoffs will happen following the conclusion of Better Call Saul last year.
Summary
- Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan weighs in on whether he will ever revisit the world of the franchise, revealing that he's proud of the show and its spinoffs.
- While he will never say never, Gilligan expresses that he doesn't want to overdo it in terms of making more Breaking Bad projects.
- While the success of spinoffs like El Camino and Better Call Saul suggest that another expansion could be very successful, it might be for the best that the Breaking Bad franchise be left alone.
Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan comments on the future of the franchise following last year's Better Call Saul finale. First airing in 2008 on AMC, Breaking Bad would go on to become one of the most acclaimed and beloved TV shows of all time. Since the series came to an end in 2013, there have been two major spinoffs, including El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, which concluded the story of Aaron Paul's Jesse, and Better Call Saul, a prequel show about Bob Odenkirk's Saul Goodman.
Now, as the future of the Breaking Bad universe remains up in the air, Gilligan reveals to Variety whether he's planning on revisting the world of the show again in any capacity. While it sounds like the creator isn't ready to definitively shut the door on the universe, he's definitely more interested in what the future holds outside his beloved franchise. Check out Gilligan's full comment below:
“To be brutally honest, if I get my ass handed to me with this next show and the one after that, and nobody wants to see it and everybody wants “Breaking Bad,” who knows! Maybe we’ll see our way clearer to doing something in the future. But what I’d like to do is leave it be. It’s the work of my lifetime — ‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘Better Call Saul’ — it’ll be the first thing engraved on my tombstone, and I couldn’t be more proud of it.
“And I kind of wonder if there are further stories to tell, but I don’t want to beat a dead horse. I look around and see other storytelling worlds — I’m not going to name names — that feel like, ‘Boy, they are really sucking that last dime out of that franchise.’ I’d hate to see that happen with this. I’d rather err on the side of leaving the party too soon than too late. But never say never. That’s just how I feel right now, but who knows down the line.”
The Genius Better Call Saul Timeline Trick That Breaking Bad's Next Spinoff Can't Repeat
If another Breaking Bad spinoff does happen, it would have to be about Gus Fring, but this causes a major Better Call Saul prequel problem.Should Another Breaking Bad Spinoff Happen?
For many, Breaking Bad is one of the best TV shows of all time, with Gilligan and the creative team delivering a thrilling, complex, and satisfying journey across five popular seasons. Even the Breaking Bad finale, upon which rested mountains of pressure, is widely regarded as a perfect conclusion.
The extremely high bar set by the show made it unclear at first whether undertaking a spinoff was a good idea. The main fear was that any sort of expansion or continuation could risk undoing what Breaking Bad did so well. Then El Camino was released in 2019, more than proving itself a worthwhile expansion and continuation of the story. It's a similar story for Better Call Saul, which not only matched Breaking Bad in terms of quality, but actually ended up serving as a satisfying conclusion to the larger Walter White saga.
Despite the success of both spinoffs, the risk remains that going back to the same well too many times will take away from what makes Breaking Bad so special. The current entertainment landscape of spinoffs, sequels, and reboots is more than enough proof that there can be too much of a good thing and that maintaining quality over long periods of time is incredibly challenging. While it's unclear whether the world of Breaking Bad will ever return to TV screens, it's reassuring that Gilligan isn't keen to milk the franchise dry.
Source: Variety
