Breaking Bad (franchise)
Breaking Bad is an American neo-Western crime media franchise created by Vince Gilligan, primarily based on the two television series Breaking Bad (2008–2013) and Better Call Saul (2015–2022), and the film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019).[1][2][3][4][5] The fictional universe is sometimes informally referred to as the "Gilliverse".[6][7]
Breaking Bad
Breaking Bad (2008–2013)
2008–2022
- Breaking Bad (2008–2013)
- Better Call Saul (2015–2022)
- "Negro y Azul" by Los Cuates de Sinaloa
- Dave Porter
- Little Barrie
- Talking Bad (2013)
- Talking Saul (2016–2022)
- Slippin' Jimmy (2022)
- Metástasis (2014)
- Faking Bad (2018)
Breaking Bad revolves around chemistry teacher turned-methamphetamine drug lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his former student and fellow crook Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Better Call Saul, the prequel / sequel series, follows the origins and eventual fate of criminal lawyer Jimmy McGill / Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), whom Walter and Jesse eventually hire in Breaking Bad. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, the sequel film, concludes the story of Jesse, now a fugitive, after the events of Breaking Bad.[8] Gilligan said he felt the three works can be seen independently from one another, but exist in the same framework and need to be viewed together to receive the full experience.[9]
The two television series and the film are set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and give a modernized twist to Westerns set in the region.[10][11] Each of the three entries were produced at Albuquerque Studios and emboldened success for the media in the city and film in the state.[12][13][14] Both series originally aired on AMC, while the film premiered on Netflix, on which the two television series aired internationally (outside of United States).[15][16] The franchise is owned by Sony Pictures Television and received strong critical acclaim; numerous awards were given to Breaking Bad, to Better Call Saul, and to El Camino.[17]
The Breaking Bad franchise has since expanded across several different mediums and multimedia platforms, with varying degrees of contributions from its cast and crew. This includes the talk shows Talking Bad (2013) and Talking Saul (2016–2022), the Spanish-language adaptation Metástasis (2014), the parody musical Faking Bad (2018), and the animated short-form series Slippin' Jimmy (2022).
Fan works[edit]
Breaking Bad – Ozymandias (2013)[edit]
In October 2013, New York composer Sung Jin Hong announced his intentions to create an opera inspired by the Breaking Bad episode "Ozymandias".[83] The mini-opera, titled Breaking Bad – Ozymandias, premiered on January 26, 2014. The opera incorporates themes from both the Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet "Ozymandias" as well as the episode that shares the same name.[84]
Breaking Bad: The Movie (2017)[edit]
In 2017, French editors Lucas Stoll and Gaylor Morestin created a fan edit, simply titled Breaking Bad: The Movie, condensing the entire series into a two-hour feature film and uploaded it onto Vimeo. They had worked on the film for around two years prior to its release.[85][86] However the film was soon taken down for copyright violation.[87][88][89] Critic Alan Sepinwall remarked that the movie "doesn't in any way work as a standalone entity."[90] In order to achieve feature film length, notable side characters like Tuco Salamanca and the Salamanca Cousins were cut entirely, and the conclusion to the Gustavo Fring story occurred off-screen.[90]
Future[edit]
Near the end of Better Call Saul's broadcast run in August 2022, Vince Gilligan said that he does not plan to create any more works in the Breaking Bad franchise, as he cannot expect any further installments to be critically successful. He said "I think I'm starting to sense you've got to know when to leave the party, you don't want to be the guy with a lampshade on your head."[93] Peter Gould later acknowledged that by the premiere of Breaking Bad's finale, he and Gilligan were already working on the spin-off, but when Better Call Saul's finale aired the two were working separately on new projects.[94]
Despite this, Giancarlo Esposito, who portrays Gus Fring, stated that "Gustavo Fring isn't done," expressing interest in a "show that would reflect Gustavo's past [and] to play the vision in my mind that inspired and informed the Gus you see but don't know. I would like you to know that Gus. It's intriguing to know where he came from," although admitting it would be up to Gilligan and his team and partners, with whom he had discussed the concept of such a series in the past.[95] As of September 2022 Esposito has continued to express interest in the project, tentatively entitled "The Rise of Gus", describing it as a "yearning inside" him.[96]
Gould would later say that he would consider other entries at some point in the future. He stated "Vince [Gilligan] and I both decided it would be good to give the Gilliverse a little bit of a rest, but we had a big board with ideas or scenes we were interested in or would be fun — and there were a lot of them still on that board when we finished up the show. Maybe that's a good thing, though. You want to leave something you didn't get to."[97]