Bryan Cranston Wants To Return To Breaking Bad With New Walter White Plan
Bryan Cranston is willing to return as Walter White, again, so long as there's a good story.
Bryan Cranston is not taking Walter White off the table just yet. The 67-year-old actor recently sat down with Awards Radar to discuss his roles on Showtime’s Your Honor and Netflix’s Breaking Bad. In the discussion, Cranston admitted that he is willing to play his Breaking Bad character again, so long as the material is right.
“Never underestimate Vince Gilligan,” Cranston said. The actor venerated the showrunner behind Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, admitting that the writer and director is the one who pulled him out of Walter White retirement initially. As far as Bryan Cranston could tell, he was done playing the character when Breaking Bad wrapped production 10 years ago.
“Then El Camino came up,” Cranston recalled. “‘Oh, I guess I’m gonna be Walter White again.’ And then Better Call Saul came up, ‘Oh, I guess I’m gonna be on,’…and then PopCorners commercial comes up. ‘You guys want to play it together?’ ‘Sure!’ It’s just fun. So now I’d be a fool to say, ‘Yeah, we’re done.’”
El Camino was a Netflix original movie written and directed by Gilligan that focused on Aaron Paul’s Breaking Bad character, Jesse Pinkman, following the events of the show. Bryan Cranston returned as Walter White for a flashback scene.
He came back as the character again in last year’s conclusion of Better Call Saul, Giligan’s Breaking Bad spin-off led by Bob Odenkirk. Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul reprised their roles again to comedic effect during the 2023 Super Bowl in an ad for the snack food PopCorners.
With so many unexpected returns to Walter White already under his belt, Bryan Cranston has learned to never say never. To come back again, however, would require something truly special.
Cranston noted that neither he nor Vince Gilligan need to milk Breaking Bad for a cash grab. “But if there was something that he woke up from a dream, and went, ‘Oh my God,’ and he pitched me on it, and I too, had the ‘Oh my god’ reaction, then I’d look at it,” Bryan Cranston said.
“It’s not often that you get an ‘Oh my god’ reaction when you read or hear a pitch. If you’re stunned and astonished by something, you should pay attention. So, if that happens – I don’t assume that will – but if that ever did, I’d listen.”
Though it is clear that Bryan Cranston is leaving the door open to return to the world of Breaking Bad, the actor continues to prove that he is much more than Walter White. Cranston leads the Showtime series Your Honor, a crime drama series that just finished its second season in March 2023. He also appears as the Host in Wes Anderson’s latest quirky comedy, Asteroid City.
Bryan Cranston has a full slate ahead, with Matthew Vaughn’s espionage thriller Argylle set to hit theaters in 2024. Cranston will star alongside Henry Cavill, Dua Lipa, Bryce Dallas Howard, John Cena, Catherine O’Hara, and Samuel L. Jackson.
Cranston is also set to star in the family drama Everything’s Going to Be Great and the action comedy Jackpot. But in 2026, Bryan Cranston is looking to retire, at least for a while. The actor stated that he plans to put a full stop to his career, foregoing reading any scripts or taking meetings for at least six months in order to spend more quality time with his wife.
While his retirement pursuits sound noble, film and television lovers can only hope that Bryan Cranston returns to acting after his planned hiatus. Over the course of the last few decades, Cranston has cemented himself as one of Hollywood’s most diverse, passionate, capable, and beloved actors.
From Seinfeld and Malcolm in the Middle to Breaking Bad, Trumbo, and Your Honor, his career is full of silly, heartbreaking, terrifying, and award-winning moments. If he ever returns again to the role of Walter White, it will be to cook up something fresh for his ever-growing list of achievements.
