Why Breaking Bad's Creator Doesn't Want To Be Remembered For Walter White

"Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan was this year's recipient of the Writers Guild of America's Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for Television Writing Achievement — an annual lifetime achievement award that honors the best of the best in television writing. (Past recipients include Rod Serling, Larry David, and David Chase.)

In his acceptance speech (reported on by Variety), Gilligan shared some mixed thoughts on the legacy of his most famous work so far. Citing the prevalence of bad guys in the current political landscape, he feels it's time to take a break from antihero protagonists like his own teacher-turned-meth cook lead, Walter "Heisenberg" White (brilliantly played by Bryan Cranston). Gilligan explained:

"Walter White is one of the all time great bad guys. But all things being equal, I think I'd rather be celebrated for creating someone a bit more inspiring. In 2025 it's time to say that out loud, because we are living in an era where bad guys, the real life kind, are running amok."

"Breaking Bad" was by no means the first anti-hero TV drama. In Cranston's own words, "without Tony Soprano there is no Walter White." The final season of "Breaking Bad" also aired simultaneously with season 8 of "Dexter," and utterly usurped it despite "Dexter" getting a head start with an earlier debut.

And therein lies in the rub. "Breaking Bad" concluded 12 years ago, but left an indelible mark on pop culture: old fans are drawn to rewatch it, and new fans are experiencing it for the first time. Some other TV anti-heroes have faded from the cultural memory, but not Walter White. For Gilligan, Heisenberg stands beside other "cool" villains of movies and TV like Michael Corleone, Hannibal Lecter, Darth Vader, and the aforementioned Mr. Soprano. That's part of his problem.

Gilligan had previously discussed his desire to "write a good guy" during a 2022 interview with The New Yorker. During that interview, Gilligan admitted he's been reassessing how he wrapped Walter's story in the "Breaking Bad" finale "Felina."

"The further away I get from 'Breaking Bad,' the less sympathy I have for Walter. He got thrown a lifeline early on. And, if he had been a better human being, he would've swallowed his pride and taken the opportunity to treat his cancer with the money his former friends offered him. He goes out on his own terms, but he leaves a trail of destruction behind him. I focus on that more than I used to."

Unfortunately, not all of the "Breaking Bad" fans out there have been as reflective as Gilligan. When the show aired, many fans would lionize Walter and twist justifications for his actions the way the character himself did. Some of those same fans notoriously despised Walter's wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) for getting in the way of his crimes. Gunn wrote a New York Times op-ed in 2013 addressing the misogyny-driven Skyler backlash, and how she had to deal with it.

For Gilligan, audiences have started to fixate too much on cool bad guys. It's unavoidable because there are so many of them out there in pop culture, because of how the antihero has become the default lead for dramatic TV, and Gilligan is concerned about the possible real-world impact of that: 

"[Audiences] say, 'Man, those dudes are badass. I want to be that cool.' When that happens, fictional bad guys stop being the cautionary player that they were created to be. God help us, they've become aspirational."

For what it's worth, "Breaking Bad" prequel/sequel "Better Call Saul" ends with Saul (Bob Odenkirk) publicly repenting and accepting imprisonment, a la "Crime and Punishment." That's quite a different fate from Walt who pulled out one last victory and died on his own terms.

Speaking of "Better Call Saul," Gilligan also mentioned his forthcoming Apple TV+ series during the speech. Little is known about the plot, but it is a science fiction series set in Albuquerque that stars Rhea Seehorn (aka Kim Wexler) as a flat-out good guy. Comparisons to "Breaking Bad" will be inevitable (as Gilligan was well aware when I was lucky enough to speak with him back in 2023), but it sounds like he's okay with this series being a much different beast than his previous Albuquerque stories.

"We have to start celebrating heroes again, good people again. As the years have gone on, we've got more and more shows and movies and novels and stories of all kinds where the point got missed somewhere [...] If you have enough stories with bad guys in it, who are we supposed to root for?"

Bryan Cranston has said he'd play Walt again if Gilligan had a strong pitch, but from Gilligan's own words, he probably isn't inclined to develop one in the first place.