We know he’s the one who knocks, but will Walter White also be the one who returns for a Breaking Bad movie?
The award-winning AMC series will be the basis for an upcoming Breaking Bad movie to be filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Series creator Vince Gilligan will oversee the film, which is being shot under the working title “Greenbrier.”
Initially reported by the Albuquerque Journal and later confirmed by Variety, the film is said to follow “the escape of a kidnapped man and his quest for freedom.”
That vague synopsis has led to reports that the film might follow Aaron Paul’s character in the series — one of the few main characters to survive the events of the show — as he attempts to rebuild his life after escaping from both the drug cartel and the white supremacists who kidnapped him in the series’ final season. Other rumors suggest that the movie could be a prequel film that brings back Bryan Cranston’s character, Walter White.
None of the series’ characters have been officially confirmed for the movie at this point, but news on that front will certainly make headlines soon, as the film is expected to begin production this month (November) and continue through February 2019.
Premiering in January 2008, AMC’s Breaking Bad followed high-school chemistry teacher Walter White who, after being diagnosed with lung cancer and given just a few years to live, decides to secure his family’s financial future by manufacturing and selling crystallized methamphetamine (crystal meth). He recruits former student Jesse Pinkman (Paul) to get a foothold in the local drug trade, only to be pulled deeper and deeper into an increasingly dangerous environment as he tangles with drug kingpins, law enforcement, and a variety of other threats to both himself and his family.
Over the course of five record-setting seasons, Breaking Bad won 16 Primetime Emmy Awards and two Peabody Awards, among a long list of other accolades, and was named the most critically acclaimed show of all time by Guinness World Records in 2013. A spinoff series following Walter’s morally flexible attorney, titled Better Call Saul, premiered in February 2015 and was recently renewed for a fifth season on AMC.
There’s no word on when the Breaking Bad movie is expected to hit theaters, or if it will even have a theatrical release, as AMC could choose to air it as a TV-only event. Given that the series finale of Breaking Bad set a viewership record for television when it aired, there’s ample reason to believe a television movie would do well for the network.
