Bryan Cranston Is "All In" For A 'Better Call Saul' Cameo
Over its first two seasons, Better Call Saul has pulled in more than a few familiar faces from Breaking Bad. There's Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) and Mike Ehrmentraut (Jonathan Banks), of course, but also criminal power players like Tuco Salmanca (Raymond Cruz) and even random minor characters like Ken (Kyle Bornheimer). One that's yet to show up, though? Walter White, whose transformation from Mr. Chips into Scarface put Saul Goodman on that long and rocky road to Omaha.
At this point, it's unclear whether the future Heisenberg will ever make his way to the prequel series. But if he does, Bryan Cranston says he'd be "all in" for a Better Call Saul Walter White cameo. Provided Vince Gilligan ever calls him up, that is.
During an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show (via ScreenRant), Cranston indicated he'd be more than happy to play Walter White again:
I owe Vince Gilligan so much. He was my champion to get [the Walter White] role. I was the guy coming off Malcolm in the Middle. If they were to call me and say, 'We have this idea, we'd like ... ,' I would say, 'Yes, you don't have to finish the pitch. I'm there, what do you want me to do?'
I know how careful they are and proprietary they are with those characters and those storylines, and it wouldn't be something, 'Oh, isn't that kind of a stunt casting kind of thing.' It would be something kind of unique and obscure and creative, and I'm all in.
Whether Gilligan would actually want Walter White to show up in Better Call Saul, however, is another question. The show has generally been pretty careful about introducing Breaking Bad characters, resisting the temptation to overload Better Call Saul with characters who have no business being there. It makes sense that Tuco or his criminal associates would have encountered Jimmy or Mike years ago. It would be harder to come up with a reason for Walter White, who was a law-abiding citizen before the events of Breaking Bad, to cross paths with them at this point.
Even if the Better Call Saul writers do find a way to him in, it's hard to imagine Walter sticking around for long. He can't have any significant interactions with Jimmy or Mike, for example, since he meets them for the first time on Breaking Bad. So it'd probably be a relatively small cameo, and then his presence might just prove distracting. This is exactly the reason Gilligan scrapped the idea to have Betsy Brandt's Marie appear in the season 2 finale, after all, so surely he'll be even more careful about how and if he ever introduces Breaking Bad's perversely charismatic lead.
Should Gilligan ever decide he wants to call in that favor, though (maybe for a quick ratings boost?), Cranston probably means what he says. This is the guy who agreed to co-star in the new Power Rangers movie as Zordon, 23 years after he did some uncredited voiceover work on the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV series. His role may have been small, but he left a big impression: the Blue Ranger, Billy Cranston, is named after him. If Cranston's willing to return to Power Rangers two decades after he did some minor voice work, it seems safe to assume he'd be happy to reprise the most iconic role of his career.