Facts about the upcoming El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie have been dropping as quickly as Mike Ehrmantraut puts a superlab together, which is to say that it's been slow as all hell. But now, Breaking Bad vet and current Better Call Saul Emmy nominee Jonathan Banks has actually offered up a shocking bit of news about the upcoming Netflix and AMC feature.
Not usually one to drop mega-scoops on the press, Jonathan Banks let loose with this spontaneous confirmation about whether or not his friendship-thwarting character Mike will be making a post-Breaking Bad return for El Camino.
Yes. They'll hit me in the head for saying this, but yes, why not? I mean, how hard are they gonna hit? None of those guys hit very hard anyway.
Jonathan Banks looked extremely pleased to finally get to unleash the news that El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie will somehow feature his jack-of-all-trades enforcer Mike, whose final moments in the TV universe's more current timeline came after Bryan Cranston's Walter White spitefully and needlessly shot him. Knowing that Mike will return, which Banks shared with Entertainment Tonight, is the starting-off point for so many questions for fans.
How is Mike going to return for El Camino**?** The easiest answer for this is "Mike is immortal," which I'd believe wholeheartedly. However, his corpse was seen after the scene in which he got shot, so coming back as a living character is likely far out of the question.
Thus, Mike's El Camino appearance necessarily has to be a flashback sequence, or a part of someone's hallucination or dream. Both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul are very, very particular when it comes to using flashbacks, and dreams / hallucinations are all but absent, making Mike's upcoming appearance as curious as anything else about this project.
Did Mike and Jesse have something set up that Walt didn't know about? Even knowing that El Camino will likely dig into Walt's criminal past, which includes partnering with and killing Mike, it's still not completely obvious why Vince Gilligan would deem it essential to bring Jonathan Banks for more than just fan service. That is, unless there's something about Mike's relationship with Jesse and/or Walt that viewers are still unaware of.
Knowing more now about Mike's fatherly instincts, I have no problem believing that Mike would have left Jesse some kind of a lifeline that Walt had zero knowledge about. And there's likely only one person who would have been in charge of putting that lifeline in place: Bob Odenkirk's Saul Goodman. That would give the fellow Breaking Bad vet a great reason to reprise the role that he's currently aiming for on Better Call Saul.
If Mike returns, that means Bryan Cranston's Walt HAS TO RETURN, right? Considering scores of Breaking Bad fans started clamoring for Walter White's return in the very seconds after his death in "Felina," there are now presumably millions of people whose sole television-related wishes involve Bryan Cranston's official return to the Breaking Bad universe as Heisenberg, or at least as the ego-driven patriarch that preceded the kingpin persona.
While the mystery is still officially intact, Jonathan Banks' confirmation about Mike has me pretty convinced now that all signs point to Bryan Cranston showing up in El Camino in some way, shape or form that doesn't wholly rely on using archived Breaking Bad footage. I'm not even sure it's scientifically possible for Vince Gilligan to create another official Breaking Bad project without Walt, and I kind of hope it isn't.
We already know that Breaking Bad's Skinny Pete and Badger will be back for El Camino, and already, that doesn't leave a whole lot of other close people from Jesse's life that could show up. So here's hoping for as many noteworthy and logical character returns as possible.
For those who haven't yet seen the latest promo for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, check out the Jesse Pinkman-centered trailer clip below, which references the havoc that Walt cause when capping off Season 5.
2019 Fall TV Premiere Schedule: Dates For New And Returning Shows
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie will make its grand debut on Friday, October 11, where it hits Netflix at 12:01 a.m. PT, and also hits a select number of theaters across the country to follow up on Jesse's story via the big screen.
