Bryan Cranston Returning As Heisenberg From Breaking Bad, See First Look
Bryan Cranston is returning to the role of Heisenberg in Breaking Bad for a PopCorners Super Bowl commercial.
In 2008, Bryan Cranston and Breaking Bad took the world by storm, due in no small part to the stellar performance of Cranston. This former funnyman played the role of cancer-stricken chemistry teacher Walter White who, with the help of a former student, becomes an intimidating meth drug lord who goes by the name of Heisenberg. That character died in the series finale, but now Entertainment Weekly revealed that Walter White will return in a PopCorners commercial airing during the Super Bowl, which you can see below:
As Breaking Bad fans know, this isn’t the first time Bryan Cranston has returned to the role since the finale of his show. For example, he makes cameo appearances in both El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie and in one episode of the spinoff series Better Call Saul. Compared to those canonical appearances, the upcoming PopCorners ad is likely to be nothing more than a winking reference to the character and the greater Breaking Bad universe.
We mostly know the commercial will feature Bryan Cranston as his famous Breaking Bad character because of a preview image released by Frito-Lay showing a silhouetted figure wearing Walt’s iconic pork pie hat. A brightly lit bag of PopCorners provides colorful contrast as the figure holds the bag to his shadowy body. While the return of Cranston seems to be a given, fans are perhaps more excited about seeing other familiar faces.
Rhasheda Boyd, the Frito-Lay VP of marketing, issued a statement about the upcoming commercial that hinted that we might see more beloved characters pop up in the commercial. “We can’t wait to see fans’ reactions to who and what’s coming,” she wrote. This has fans speculating on which other Breaking Bad characters we are likely to see appear alongside Bryan Cranston.
For example, it’s a pretty smart bet that we will see the return of Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman. Paul was willing to reprise his Breaking Bad role for cameos in Better Call Saul just as Bryan Cranston was, and he was the primary star of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. And considering the surprising news that Westworld has been canceled by HBO, Paul may have spare time to pop up in the commercial.
It’s less likely to happen, but fans would go crazy to see the return of Breaking Bad favorite Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring, who served as the primary antagonist of Bryan Cranston’s Walter White. Of course, Esposito is a very busy man these days, lending his bad guy cred to shows like The Mandalorian and The Boys and even finding the time to voice Lex Luthor over on Harley Quinn. Still, Esposito was game to return to Better Call Saul in a big way, so he might be willing to lend his stately gravitas to a Super Bowl commercial.
Aside from Bryan Cranston, we don’t know who else from Breaking Bad is going to return for this commercial. If fan response is any indication, Frito-Lay’s teaser image has accomplished just what they set out to do: build major hype for this commercial. However, if Walter White says something like “I’m the one who chomps,” though, we may never be able to take this character seriously again.
