Breaking Bad Shocker: Creator Had Multiple Endings with Walter White Alive!

Airing on AMC from 2008 to 2013, Breaking Bad, created by Vince Gilligan, has left an unforgettable mark on viewers and is rightfully considered one of the greatest television series ever made.

Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

As a reminder, the series concluded with Season 5, Episode 16, titled Felina. This episode is widely regarded as one of Breaking Bad’s best, with Walter White settling scores with his adversaries, freeing Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), and admitting to Skyler White (Anna Gunn) that his criminal endeavors were driven by personal gain, not family welfare. Ultimately, Walter dies following a confrontation with a neo-Nazi gang.

“It Would Have Been a Gut Punch for the Audience”

In 2022, Vince Gilligan told Entertainment Weekly that the writers “didn’t feel an absolute need to have Walt die at the end of the show”:

“We considered an ending in which Walt is the last man standing amidst the ruins, while his entire family is wiped out”, he explained. “It would have been a powerful ending, but also a real gut punch for the audience”. Gilligan added: “We discussed a version where Jesse kills Walt. We also considered a scenario where Walt gets off relatively scot-free.”

When it was decided that Walter White should meet a tragic end, the question was: how? The possibility of Jesse killing Walter was favored for a while:

“We thought about Jesse accepting Walter’s offer to kill him, or Walter turning around to find Jesse pointing a gun at him. We considered all possible variants.” However, as Jesse already kills Todd Alquist (Jesse Plemons) in the final episode, the writers felt it was unnecessary for Jesse to also kill Walter.

In their final standoff, Jesse realizes that Walter wants to die, but he is already bleeding out from the shootout. Instead of giving in and exacting revenge on Walter, Jesse lets him die alone. Gilligan explains: “He’s simply not going to make Walt happy anymore. It’s not about saying, ‘I’m not angry enough to kill you.’ It’s more about, ‘This is what you want, so I’m not going to give it to you.’”

Ultimately, it’s worth noting that El Camino, the Breaking Bad movie that concludes Jesse’s story, provides the only happy ending in the Breaking Bad universe, unlike the series itself or even Better Call Saul, which end on a real note of bitterness.

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