Cranston Dropped a Perfect One-Liner After Reading Breaking Bad Finale for the First Time
Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul first read the Breaking Bad finale script together – and with a beer. And who can blame them?
After 5 seasons and 62 episodes, the finale was always going to be the end of an era for the actors and all the crew involved in producing the show.
And despite the volcano of theories, speculation and rumour that erupted after the final episode aired, Bryan Cranston knew immediately that it was the end of the road for Walter White.
After closing the final page for the first time, the actor who had brought Walt to life so perfectly tossed the script onto a nearby table, took off his glasses and said simply, "So, I guess there won't be a sequel."
Aaron Paul was visibly moved by the reading and wasn't shy about expressing his emotions. "I feel sad," he said before going on to say the script was not just "great" but "perfect".
Of course, as Cranston pointed out, "Jesse doesn't die." So, maybe what he should have said was, "I guess there won't be a sequel with me in it." And even that wouldn't have been entirely true.
If we class Better Call Saul as both a prequel and sequel to Breaking Bad, then Cranston's appearance alongside Paul in a flashback puts the actor in a sequel to Breaking Bad.
And Cranston basically predicted El Camino back before the pair even shot the final episode of the original Breaking Bad series.
Footage of the two reading that script for the first time shows Cranston playfully rubbing Paul's shoulder as he reminds him that Jesse Pinkman lives to fight another day.
It's almost as if he knew at that point that there was far more to this franchise and that some form of sequel or prequel had to follow.
And he wasn't wrong. As we've seen with so many ground-breaking movies and TV shows, fan appetite for more is matched by that of execs.
Now, what each wants more of may not always be exactly the same. But the mutual agreement that the franchise should not merely end just because the show has finished provides all parties with a licence to expect it anyway.
We've seen it with Star Wars, Marvel, The Sopranos and Game of Thrones over the years. And it was inevitable we'd see it with Breaking Bad too. As Bryan Cranston knew all too well.