James Martinez Reflects on How ‘Better Call Saul’ Paid Tribute to His ‘Breaking Bad’ Character: ‘Brilliant’

Amanda Bell February 14, 2025, 2:23 pm

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Breaking Bad was filled with brief but highly memorable character appearances throughout its runtime, and several of the most boisterous personalities from the original show ended up making it into Better Call Saul as Easter eggs for fans. One of the most important people to come and go through the AMC drama, though, only returned through various mentions and innuendos. Still, if you ask the actor who played that role, it all made for a very fitting tribute indeed.

In a key Breaking Bad flashback scene, Max Arciniega, portrayed by James Martinez, was introduced as the business partner of Gustavo Fring. Together, the two self-proclaimed “chicken brothers” attempted to make a deal with the cartel to make methamphetamine for them to distribute. Max was a chemist and helped Gus create both the signature Los Pollos Hermanos marinade recipe and his drug formula. During their pitch meeting with Don Eladio at his pool, though, Max was viciously murdered by Hector Salamanca (Mark Margolis) as punishment for them distributing their meth to get the cartel’s attention.

Max’s death sent Gus on a very lengthy and calculated revenge tour against the cartel, especially Hector, so naturally, it was relevant to the backstory and had to become part of Better Call Saul.

“I was, I’m not going to lie, expecting to be asked back for Better Call Saul because I knew that there was going to be a reference to Max,” Martinez admitted to TV Insider while discussing the season finale of his other prequel series, Dexter: Original Sin.

'Dexter: Original Sin' Star James Martinez Unpacks That Finale

“I didn’t know whether it would be in a flashback capacity, but what they did end up doing was brilliant, I thought, because it really brought everything back after everything that Gus has been through to kind of just get back to the core and the reason that he became who he is, what the driving force was behind Gus,” he added.

Indeed, Max’s memory was evoked more than once in Better Call Saul, and he was even mentioned by name in the Season 5 episode “Dedicado a Max,” in which a memorial fountain bearing his name was shown in a Mexican village sponsored by Gus. Perhaps the most poignant allusion to Max came, however, near the end of the series when Gus was flirting with a sommelier at a bar and, without a word, seemingly remembered his mission, put down his glass, and went back to work. It seemingly confirmed the longstanding theory that Max was more than just Gus’ business partner, but was instead the love of his life.

“I think it’s very parallel to actually Dexter‘s prequel; you kind of get to see why Dexter became — or how Dexter became — Dexter. And then, in Breaking Bad, because of that flashback, you kind of get to see the beginnings of Gus, who he was before he became the Gus we all know and what his motivations are behind everything he does,” Martinez remembered.

As for whether Max will ever live on again on screen, Martinez said, “Never say never. I think Gus is a character that, if a prequel were to happen, the fans would more than welcome that.”