5 Breaking Bad Characters Who Actually Looked Younger in Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul, being a prequel spinoff to Breaking Bad, obviously featured many familiar faces. Yes, the magic of makeup and cinema does wonders. But most of the characters who returned actually look older. However, there are exceptions.

In Better Call Saul, it's kind of weird how some characters should appear younger,while the actors themselves look older in real life. Aging is totally normal, but it can be a bit disturbing when you see characters like Jimmy, Mike, Gus, Jesse, and others looking older than they should.

A lot of fans were pretty bummed out by this, and it sort of took away from the magic of the show for some of them. Because of that, some really creative fans even took matters into their own hands and decided to de-age the characters in the flashback scenes.

One cool example is a YouTube channel called TheCynicalProduction. They used some AI wizardry to make Aaron Paul, Bryan Cranston, and Bob Odenkirk look more like their younger selves in that iconic RV scene.

While it’s cool that we can do it with technologies, let’s not forget that the prequel’s creators focused on the well-crafted story and its characters. Plus, some actors surprisingly didn’t need any de-aging, like at all.

Here’s the list of them.

Hector Salamanca

Not being in a wheelchair and speaking in Better Call Saul gave the terrifying Hector a certain vitality. We get a glimpse of a slightly younger, more mobile Hector, before his wheelchair days.

The creators did an incredible job in making him look vibrant and sprightlier. But this vivid picture of Hector from the past is also a huge merit of the talented Mark Margolis, who unfortunately passed away this August.

Krazy-8

Domingo Molina, aka Krazy-8, is the first major bad guy Walter White has to deal with in Breaking Bad. But in Better Call Saul, we see Domingo in his earlier days, looking fresh-faced and not-so-crazy, working for the Salamanca family.

Max Arciniega, who portrayed the character, somehow looks younger than himself in Breaking Bad, and it's a treat to see this transformation, from a relatively simple guy to Krazy-8.

Emilio

Speaking about Krazy-8, we can’t help but mention his cousin and right-hand man Emilio, who had a brief but memorable stint in Breaking Bad, firstly introduced as Jesse Pinkman’s partner.

John Koyama reprised the role in a brief cameo in Better Call Saul’s season 6. While not necessarily looking younger, he definitely looks as young as his 2008 self.

Huell Babineaux

Big man Huell is one of those characters you just can't forget — mainly because of his sheer size and his loyalty to Saul Goodman.

But in Better Call Saul, we meet a younger Huell, and he really does look younger, primarily because Lavell Crawford, the actor who portrayed Huell, lost weight in between the two shows.

Francesca

Francesca came a long way from the bubbly receptionist for Jimmy McGill in Better Call Saul to the more serious and discreet secretary for Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad.

Apart from the obvious change in attitude and style, there's something about Francesca in the prequel that makes her look more youthful and optimistic.