After John Barrowman’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2018 let out at around 2:50pm on Thursday, July 19, we headed straight back over to Hall H for the Better Call Saul panel which was scheduled to begin at 3:30pm. The line wasn’t too long, and we were moving steadily, so we weren’t worried about not making it in.
One thing that had changed from entering Hall H from earlier that morning was that the metal detectors that we had simply walked through were now in full use. We actually had to have our bags checked and take everything out of our pockets before walking through. Not sure why this changed from the morning to the afternoon. Presumably because they’re in such a hurry to load Hall H in the morning, but later on they feel like they can take their time? Anyway, we made it in with a few minutes to spare.
Better Call Saul
Bill Burr, who played Kuby in Breaking Bad, moderated both the Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad panels. Although Better Call Saul is going into its fourth season, this is the first time that it has had a panel at San Diego Comic-Con.
The panel began with a trailer for Season 4 of Better Call Saul, which you can watch below:
Panelists included creator Vince Gilligan, co-creator and executive producer Peter Gould, and cast members Bob Odenkirk (Jimmy), Rhea Seehorn (Kim), Patrick Fabian (Hamlin), Michael Mando (Nacho), and Giancarlo Esposito (Gus). Jonathan Banks (Mike) was unable to make it to the panel due to knee surgery, but he was represented in bobblehead form.
Vince Gilligan, who clarified that he has stepped away from the show and is now a fan, proclaimed that “Season 4 is the best season yet!” Gilligan said that there were funny moments as well as darker moments, and that the overlap between Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad was getting even bigger. He also teased that there were scenes that could have been on Breaking Bad. Bob Odenkirk seemed to have one particular scene in mind, and tried to get Peter Gould to divulge it, but Gould would only say that we would see things that would be familiar “in a delightful way.” Odenkirk commented, “If you love Breaking Bad, you’re going to see that world expand a bit.” Additionally, we will meet people who were referenced in Breaking Bad that we never met.
In fact, a clip was shown from the first episode of Breaking Bad in which Saul Goodman appeared, and which referenced a particular name. The clip was from when Walt and Jesse kidnapped Saul. The two are in ski masks, standing outside of the RV, pointing guns at Saul, who is kneeling on the ground next to a trench. Saul asks if Lalo sent them, and is relieved to find out he didn’t.
Odenkirk then reminisced about shooting that scene — which went until 3 or 4am — and how his eyes and mouth were full of sand! Burr asked if it was planned when minor characters from Breaking Bad made appearances on Better Call Saul, but Gilligan and Gould said it was not planned. Regarding Lalo specifically, Gould said this character is being brought in because Odenkirk kept asking about him, and wanting to know who Lalo was. Gould announced that Lalo is played by Tony Dalton, and they even showed us a picture of Lalo talking to Hector Salamanca in an episode that Gilligan himself directed. Rhea Seehorn recalled when she and Patrick Fabian went to set the first day that Dalton was shooting, and they only saw his back, but heard how scary his voice was, which Fabian agreed with. Fabian added that when Dalton turned around, they saw that he was kind of dreamy too!
We learned that Gilligan and Gould actually have a list of all the characters in Breaking Bad and that they had to go through and break it down how to insert them into Better Call Saul. Gilligan commented that they had an inclination to get greedy and put them all in at once, but they have to practice self-discipline and save the characters up, so it has been tricky trying to parcel them out. Gould teased that we would see a few familiar faces this season that we would enjoy.
When Burr asked how much of the show they actually have planned, Gould talked about focusing on the characters they have in front of them and considering what those characters would do. Gould ultimately answered, “We’re making it up as we go along.” However, Gould did say that one thing he learned from Gilligan is that even when you have a bunch of plans in place, you have to be ready to throw them out.
Gould spoke about how Odenkirk is willing to do anything — such as getting into a dumpster, for example — and Odenkirk agreed, “I love doing the crazier things.” Odenkirk added that when he started, he told the writers to beat the sh*t out of his character. He further elaborated that, “Saul is really sympathetic if he’s getting his ass handed to him.”
Michael Mando brought up the fact that Bill Burr himself had appeared in Breaking Bad as Kuby. Burr said, “I looked a little different then,” referring to the fact that he had hair then, but is now bald. He brought up a funny story about how he didn’t know his character’s first name until he was watching a later episode and another character referred to him as Patrick Kuby! He had been excited to find out his name.
As for what happens to Seehorn’s character, Kim, between Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad, Seehorn has heard several fan theories. One is that Kim works at a Claire’s next to the Cinnabon where Saul works! Another is that Kim and Hamlin start a mega church. Other theories include that she’s in prison, or dead, or in a basement but alive.
Giancarlo Esposito spoke about the challenges of playing a character who is now younger than when we first met him, such as dealing with his graying hair. It’s also a challenge for him to try to figure out how to be a guy that we have not seen before. His inspiration for the character Gus Fring is due to one stage direction that Gilligan wrote: “Hiding in plain sight.”
Michael Mando recalled his own screen test for Nacho, and Gilligan had given him a similar note: This is a guy who would not kill a bug with a sledgehammer.
Odenkirk went on the praise the writers and how they have built up shows that engage the fans so much, and how the fans watch very closely and pay attention to every little detail. Indeed, Gould talked about how sometimes in the writer’s room, they’ll discuss whether they need to make something more obvious, but typically the answer is no, because the audience is so attentive that they’ll know or can figure it out on their own. Mando also commented how the characters are able to grow and change over time.
Odenkirk spoke about how they grow to like their characters, so much so that they become concerned about the decisions their character is making. “It hurts my heart a little bit to see Jimmy turning into Saul,” he said. He even called up Gilligan and asked if he had to turn into Saul, and if it was too late to change the show’s name! Better Call McGill. In fact, Gould revealed that Noah Hawley, the writer and creator of the Fargo and Legion TV shows, came up to him with a pitch: Jimmy McGill never becomes Saul Goodman. However, Gould pointed out that it’s more interesting to watch a show about people making mistakes than about people always making the right decision all the time.
Seehorn mentioned that she has been asked if Kim gets anxious about certain things she sees Jimmy doing. But as Seehorn pointed out, even though she herself has seen Breaking Bad, Kim has not, and does not know what happens to Jimmy in the future, so she has to stay present. She also went on to say that there is a question of nature vs. nurture: is he who he is because of or in spite of Chuck and everything else he has been through? Fabian jokingly got defensive, saying, “Why are you looking at me?! I’m just trying to run a business!” at which point Esposito chimed in, “Yeah, me too!”
The final 15 minutes of the panel was opened up for audience Q&A.
The first people to ask a question was a group of three people dressed as Los Pollos Hermanos employees. They asked the panelists what their first jobs were before acting. McDonald’s was a common answer, while Seehorn worked at a video rental store, Mando worked at a donut shop, and Esposito mowed lawns.
As for which Breaking Bad character they would have a beer with, Odenkirk had to think about it a moment, saying, “I’m afraid of all those people!” Seehorn would have picked Saul, but since that has already happened, Betsy Brandt is her second choice. Fabian answered Gus, so they could compare suit talk, adding the tease, “And who knows? Maybe it’ll happen some day!” Mando pointed out that they all got to have beers with the Breaking Bad cast the night before, and he enjoyed Bryan Cranston’s company and advice so much that he would pick Walter White. Esposito raised his glass to Jonathan Banks since he wasn’t able to join the panel. Seehorn commented that they all would have picked Jonathan Banks, but probably didn’t because they already had had a beer with him. Odenkirk finally came up with his answer: Huell, because he cracks him up. Fabian then sent a video to Jonathan Banks of the audience cheering for him.
A question posed to the cast members who play lawyers on the show was whether they think they could pose as an actual attorney after all the legal jargon they’ve learned on the show. “I could fool an idiot,” Odenkirk replied. Seehorn said she absolutely could not, and told us about how the show uses legal consultants. Fabian said that he’s more concerned about how his suits are fitting, and pointed out that his character never actually practices law on the show — which is worrisome because he keeps losing people from the firm!
Regarding whether Odenkirk thinks of his character on Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad as the same person or two different people, Odenkirk commented that when we see Saul on Breaking Bad, we only ever see him at work, we never see what his home life is like. He pointed out that it’s possible that Kim is still a part of his life, though he doubts it. Odenkirk went on to say that he likes to think there’s still a small part of Jimmy in Saul. But to answer the question, he thinks they are the same person.
Speaking about the writing room, Gould said that it is run the same way that Gilligan ran it on Breaking Bad: it’s a safe room, and anyone can say what comes to their mind. Gould called it a “true collaboration,” which is what makes it fun for him. Gilligan commented that there are different ways to run a writer’s room, and you can make it antagonistic if you like, but the way they think it works best is to make it a “true democracy”: the best idea wins.
Another audience member asked if the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque would ever make an appearance on the show. However, Gould answered that it’s tricky because that’s a certain two weeks every year, and their filming schedule always varies. He also pointed out that there are many other aspects of Albuquerque that they haven’t yet had a chance to get on the show, such as the tram and Old Town. Gould also made the plea, “Don’t throw pizza on the White house. It’s been done.”
With that, the panel wrapped up and there was a short intermission before the Breaking Bad 10th Anniversary Reunion panel started.
You can view more of our photos from the SDCC 2018 Better Call Saul panel below.
Breaking Bad 10th Anniversary Celebration
The panel began with an image of the 10th anniversary logo, with the iconic theme music, and then a highlight reel of iconic scenes from Breaking Bad was shown. This got me even more excited for the panel.
Bill Burr returned as moderator for the Breaking Bad panel, and Vince Gilligan, Bob Odenkirk, and Giancarlo Esposito returned as well. They were joined by cast members Betsy Brandt (Marie), Dean Norris (Hank), R.J. Mitte (Walt Jr.), Anna Gunn (Skyler), Aaron Paul (Jesse), and Bryan Cranston (Walt). Aaron Paul walked onstage holding his baby — who was wearing a hazmat suit! But then he asked his wife to come get the baby.
Burr brought up the Entertainment Weekly cover shoot where the gang got back together for the first time, and asked what it was like. “I was surprised the RV still ran!” Gilligan exclaimed, telling us that it had just been sitting on display on the Sony lot. Cranston took the opportunity to promote the charity auction that he and Aaron Paul are doing on Omaze, where you can win a trip to Los Angeles to hang out with the two of them in the RV and cook food.
Gilligan spoke about how they set out to make the show as realistic as possible and always show that there are consequences. They didn’t want it to just be entertainment, they wanted it to feel real.
Burr pointed out how the show kept growing and growing exponentially every year, and asked what it was like to keep gaining more and more fans like that. Cranston commented how they started out as a little show, but he knew that they were starting to get big when people started stealing the directional signs indicating where cast and crew should park! This started happening during the second or third season. Then they changed the signs from reading “Breaking Bad” to “Br Ba” but those got stolen too. Paul and Cranston also spoke about how Netflix was instrumental in making the show more popular, as the first three seasons were put on Netflix as the fourth season began shooting.
To Gilligan, the major turning point was when Cranston won the Emmy for just the first 7 episodes. Neither Gilligan nor Cranston himself thought he was going to win. Cranston recalled that at the awards show, the cameraman came in front of him when his category was coming up, and his wife started to get nervous. He told her not to worry, that they weren’t going to call his name. But then they did.
Aaron Paul said that he loved playing Jesse and that he misses him. He turned to his fellow cast members and told them that he misses all of them and the show. Audience members shouted, “Bring it back!” As for whether we might see any of these panelists’ characters show up on Better Call Saul, Gilligan said he thought there was a very good chance. However, Gilligan made it clear that we will not see Walt or Jesse on Season 4 of Better Call Saul. But he did acknowledge that they would be “sorely remiss” if the two didn’t appear at some point before the show ended. Odenkirk reminded us that Agent Schrader (Hank) knows Saul. Gilligan agreed, saying that Saul and Hank seemed to have a “healthy dislike” for one another the first time we see them meet on Breaking Bad. Odenkirk commented, “Something bad happened. Let’s find out what it is!”
The question came up about why Marie wears the color purple. Betsy Brandt explained that the show’s costume designer gave everyone a color. Brandt had decided that if Marie had a color, “it is her color” and that she is so tightly wound and obsessive. Brandt also revealed how Marie’s job was decided. She had gone up to Gilligan and asked what Marie’s job was. He turned it around, asking her what she thought it was. She answered X-Ray technician, so that is what it became, as Gilligan was so struck by her specificity. Gilligan also commented that purple is the color of royalty, so he thought that was part of it too. Brandt added that it’s “universally flattering.”
Anna Gunn spoke about her character Skyler. She recalled that when she had gone in for her screen test, she had asked Gilligan to tell her more about her character and where she might go. He told her, “She’ll be like Carmella Soprano, but she’ll be in on the crime.” This answer satisfied her. Gilligan talked about how Gunn’s superb, smart acting had made it hard for them to continue keeping the secret from Skyler. They had wanted to keep the secret going for longer, but ultimately had a discussion and came to the conclusion that it just wasn’t believable. This forced them to make the revelation sooner. Gilligan pointed out that this was good advice for writers: that you can’t get too much in your head about where you want your characters to go. Rather, you have to listen to your characters and “go with the flow.”
Gilligan also talked about how they had originally planned to kill off Jesse at the end of Season 1. But it was such a “no brainer” to decide not to kill him off. Paul remembered that toward the end of the first season, with two more episodes left, Gilligan pulled him aside and told him that they had planned to kill him off, but had decided not to. This left Paul paranoid, because he thought this meant his days were numbered, while Gilligan thought he was doing him a favor by telling him that they liked him so much that they were keeping him. Additionally, to Gilligan’s recollection, he thought it was much earlier that he told Paul about this.
However, Cranston would then constantly prank Paul to make him think he was going to be killed off. For example, the first time he did this, right after he got a script but before actually reading it, he went up to Paul and gave him a long, exaggerated hug, telling him, “It’s been a fun ride.” When Paul asked Cranston what he meant, he replied, “You read the script, right?” Then when Paul answered no, Cranston apologized and walked away. Another time, there was a fitting, and Paul was told he needed to be measured for the coffin.
Speaking about his character, Hank, Dean Norris commented that they made it believable that his character didn’t figure it out until the end — though he wasn’t sure what that said about him that they had to re-write Gunn’s character so that Skyler found out sooner! Brandt had seen the redacted script of that scene, and all she knew was that Hank was sitting on the can, so she was worried he was going to die then.
The panel was also opened up to audience questions.
One audience member brought up the fact that at one point Gilligan had referred to the show as a “socialogical experiment” and asked what were the results of that experiment. Gilligan explained that he was “young and stupid” when he made that comment, and that what he was going for was to have a show that started off with a sympathetic character that you rooted for, but that tried to shake fans off as they went along, due to Walt going too far. Now he’s not sure what he was thinking trying to shake off viewers, but the harder they tried, the more the fans would hang on! Gilligan praised Cranston for being the reason that we hung on, despite the opposite which should have been true if you just looked at it on paper.
When asked what was the hardest scene to film, R.J. Mitte talked about the scene where Walt Jr. finds Walt at his condo. Mitte and Cranston had a conversation about it, and the emotional level of the scene. At the time, Mitte’s grandfather had just passed from emphysema, so it was like the same conversation was happening in that moment. It was tough to bring those emotions back.
Regarding the possibility of any reboots, Cranston said that “it’s best to leave it alone.” Cranston praised Gilligan for changing their lives by being a brilliant storyteller and taking them on a journey.
As for the question of which actor had the greatest creative input, Gilligan answered that they all had equal creative input, and that it was a pleasure working with all of them. Gilligan recalled that the only time he worked on the show by himself was when he wrote the first episode, which in his opinion is the “least good” episode because he didn’t have the collaborative effort yet either with the writers or the cast. Oftentimes, they took cues from the actors and their actual personalities to make the storytelling deeper and better.
Another question was whether there was anything that Cranston brought from his character on Malcolm in the Middle to Breaking Bad. Cranston gave the obvious answer: the underwear. “Which I’m still wearing!” Cranston joked. Though he added that it was two sizes too small now.
Burr asked Paul how he came up with the idea of Bojack Horseman, but Paul corrected him, saying that it wasn’t his idea. Right after he wrapped Breaking Bad, he was approached to work on the show, which they shopped around and eventually got picked up on Netflix.
When asked if Saul was always the character that Gilligan had in mind for a spin-off, he answered, “Any of these characters could have their own spin-off,” though he was quick to point out that he was not saying that they will. Gilligan said that the idea for the Saul spin-off started out as a joke in the writer’s room. During the first scene between Walt and Saul at Saul’s office, someone made the joke, “Can I get a job on the sequel?” because it seemed more like a guest role at the time. But then the next year, Gilligan came to Odenkirk and said that there might be a story to tell about Saul. Odenkirk made sure to clarify that he does not help with the storylines at all, because the writers are so good and he leaves it up to them.
The question came up of whether the panelists were aware of the Fear the Walking Dead/Breaking Bad crossover theories and if there was anything in the works. Gilligan had in fact heard of the theory, and explained for those who hadn’t that there’s a theory that Walter White’s meth was responsible for the zombie apocalypse. Cranston commented, “Walt is dead, so he could be a zombie right now.” Gilligan said he loved the theory and got a kick out of hearing it.
Addressing how they approached telling the story, Gilligan said that the questions they asked most often to determine how they would move forward were Where is Walter White’s head at right now? What does he want? What obstacles are arrayed against him? They would do this for each character, and ask these questions over and over.
The final question was whether Cranston stayed in character between seasons in order to get ready for the next season. Cranston joked that he stayed in character the entire time, and would go out and practice killing people.
Before the panel wrapped up, Gilligan made an announcement that the Breaking Bad composer Dave Porter has an album out of The Music of Breaking Bad. Gilligan even held up the vinyl of it, and said that there is also a Spotify playlist that contains all the songs as well. Burr announced that the vinyl is available exclusively at FYE, and you could go over to the FYE popup shop at Horton Plaza to get it.
An image of artwork by Dan Mumford was then displayed on the screen. This was done for the 10th anniversary and was based on the episode Ozymandias, and is now available to order on Gallery1988’s website.
With that, the Breaking Bad panel came to a close. It was pretty awesome seeing all those people together again, especially since we thought the last time we would see them was at the SDCC 2013 panel that was just before the final episodes! It made Josh and I want to go back and re-watch it all over again.
After the Breaking Bad panel, Josh decided to go back to the room to rest, while I went to see if I could make it into the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend panel, with my backup plan being to go to the Iron Fist panel. Stay tuned for the continuation of our SDCC 2018 story!
You can view more of our photos from the SDCC 2018 Breaking Bad 10th Anniversary reunion panel below.
