Rejoice: the door isn't completely closed on a Gus Fring Breaking Bad prequel
After the end of Better Call Saul, all of us are pretty desperate to return to ABQ: including Giancarlo Esposito
Chronologically, the last time we see Gus Fring, the beloved meth kingpin/fried chicken purveyor of the BBCU (Breaking Bad Cinematic Universe), he is suavely re-adjusting his tie and, oh yeah, has also been separated from half of his skull. In 2011, that appeared to be the end of the road. But not even one of television’s gnarliest deaths could keep such a great character down, and in 2017 he returned for an excellent five-season run on the recently-concluded (sigh) Better Call Saul. Can he do it again? Coming soon to a theater near you, this is…Meth-ions: The Rise Of Gus!
OK, not really. Or at least, not yet. Because Giancarlo Esposito, the actor who has lent Gus his iconic blend of steely, terrifying reticence for all these years, is on board with the idea of an origin story. But he’s sticking (mostly) with that title, apparently, despite any potential confusion with another, suit-wearing pop-culture phenomenon. (Hey, at least it could be worse!)
“I’ve always kept these [Breaking Bad] pillars in my head, as much as I’ve wanted so much as an actor to explore Gus’s previous life — Gus’ life in Chile, all these things,” Esposito said, per Entertainment Weekly. He continues:
There is a yearning inside me, and I keep coming back to the Rise of Gus…It fits the puzzle, and we could see where he had come from and maybe explore more of who he really is underneath the mask. [Gould and Gilligan] have exactly said that — it’s not over till it’s over, and you never know. I totally believe that they should take a break. It’s an intense world to live in for a while. And they both have skills in other areas and should tell those stories too. But I’m not averse to one day coming back to him. I just hope if that is supposed to happen, that it’s sometime before I’m 90.
We’re also crossing our fingers that the BBCU will expand before Esposito is 90, although, if Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston’s recent reprisals of their Breaking Bad roles are anything to go by, we’re not sure even that would stop these crazy kids.
While Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is in no rush to return to ABQ, his partner Peter Gould is leaving the lab door open—just a crack. “This world is so rich and these characters are so layered and these actors are so wonderful that we’d be crazy not to at least wonder and daydream about what the other possibilities are,” he said. Fingers crossed!