Vince Gilligan on the Possibility of More ‘Breaking Bad’-Inspired Movies

Jim Halterman October 23, 2019, 1:00 pm

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie — Netflix

When AMC’s hit drama Breaking Bad ended in 2013, drug lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston) was dead and his cohort Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) had escaped imprisonment by white supremacists and was driving off to (supposed) safety.

Over the years, series creator Vince Gilligan found himself wondering if Jesse could have encountered a different fate: “What if he went around the corner and the cops were there?” Gilligan asks.

The answer to that question, and Jesse’s continuing journey (“He’s trying desperately to get out of town,” Gilligan says), can be found in the movie El Camino (now streaming on Netflix; it will air on AMC in 2020), which picks up right where the drama left off. Gilligan talks about revisiting the Bad world.

Roush Review: Aaron Paul Breaks Bad in 'El Camino'

We see Jesse’s friends Skinny Pete (Charles Baker) and Badger (Matt Jones) and, in flashback, his dead girlfriend, Jane (Krysten Ritter). How did you decide who would appear?

Vince Gilligan: This movie is 100 percent Jesse Pinkman’s story, so who are the characters who mean the most to him? Jesse never quite got over Jane. [Executive producer] Peter Gould said, “You’ve got to get Jane in there.” Damned if he wasn’t right!

(Credit: Netflix)

How did the diner reunion between Walt and Jesse come about?

I couldn’t imagine any kind of Breaking Bad movie without Walter. [Editor’s note: Yes, Cranston returns, also in a flashback.] But I thought, let’s go with a moment where they were uncharacteristically nice to each other. Walt says to Jesse, “You’re lucky. You didn’t have to wait your whole life to do something special.”

In a flashback with retired cop Mike (Jonathan Banks), he plants the seed that Jesse should go to Alaska. Did that scene exist in the series?

That is sort of a “missing scene” from [Season 5’s] “Say My Name” episode. There’s nothing in the movie from the show except one mug shot photo of Jesse on a TV screen.