Breaking Bad aired for five seasons and sparked an acclaimed spin-off (Picture: AMC)
One of the most iconic characters in the Breaking Bad universe very nearly didn’t see the light of day, after TV bosses said they weren’t keen on him.
The gritty drama, starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, ran for five seasons between 2008 – 2013 and is currently streaming on Netflix.
It followed chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan), who turns to a life of crime and drugs when he’s diagnosed with cancer, with the help of former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron).
In 2015, it spawned prequel spin-off series, Better Call Saul, which focused on shady lawyer Saul Goodman – aka Jimmy McGill – played to perfection by Bob Odenkirk.
Saul made his debut in season two of the original program, before his back story was explored further in Better Call Saul. However, writer Peter Gould dropped a huge bombshell that executives didn’t love the character at first, and actually asked for another storyline to be used instead.
In a passage from Alan Sepinwall’s upcoming book, Saul Goodman V Jimmy McGill, he explained that the writers decided to introduce the attorney when they unexpectedly lost Raymond Cruz, who played drug lord Tuco Salamanca.
Bob Odenkirk made his debut as Saul Goodman in season two (Picture: AMC)
His character then landed his very own spin-off in 2015 (Picture: AMC)
They came up with the idea of including a lawyer to help Walter and Jesse as their meth empire expanded – and found themselves ‘just having fun with the character’, without taking him too seriously at first.
‘Really, his creation was all in service of Walt’s story,’ an excerpt read, via Entertainment Weekly. ‘We weren’t thinking, here’s an independent character who’s going to have a life of his own. We thought, how does this serve Walt’s story? And how is he different from the other characters we’ve seen?
‘Did we think he was going to have a future? Well, I’ll tell you, personally, as I was writing the episode, I got very nervous.
‘I got scared, because I was worried that we were going to break the show by making a character that was too silly – that he was going to be just too big for what I thought was a very grounded show. Grounded in its own way, let’s put it that way.
Saul was initially introduced to ‘service Walt’s story’ (Picture: AMC)
‘My fear was actually enhanced when we had our first notes call with an executive who will remain nameless. Vince and I were on a conference call, and the question came up, basically, “We don’t like this character. Could we start again and come up with a different story for this episode?”
‘And Vince said, “No.” He was strongly advocating for the script and for the character. And, to their credit, the person or persons on the call backed down, because they had to trust Vince. But, you can think about what an alternative universe would be where we had had to throw that episode out.’
Thankfully, Vince and co held strong and welcomed Saul into the fold during the eighth episode of Breaking Bad season two, aptly titled Better Call Saul.
The sleazy attorney quickly became a firm fan favorite and then landed a separate series with the same name – leading the way in six seasons before Better Call Saul ended in 2022.
Better Call Saul was met with huge acclaim (Picture: AMC)
Peter previously spoke to Metro about all things Breaking Bad, teasing that there are other characters with back stories that he would love to explore
‘Every single one of these characters could have a whole show,’ he told us. ‘There’s no question. I mean, Kim Wexler, Mike Ehrmantraut, Hank Schrader…
‘I could see the Hank Shrader show, absolutely.
‘But we’ll just have to see what happens. Right now. I think we’re going to give it a little rest.’
Got a story?
If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@metro.co.uk, calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we’d love to hear from you.