One thing about the brutal world of meth dealing on “Breaking Bad” is that there was never any guarantee a character would survive. Series creator/showrunner Vince Gilligan and the writing team thought about killing off major characters pretty regularly, like famously originally planning on killing Jesse (Aaron Paul) at the end of season 1 or contemplating killing Sklyer (Anna Gunn) in season 5. The show would have been very different without Jesse, who’s the true heart and soul of the series, so killing him would have been a huge mistake, and killing Skyler would have just been unnecessary. Thankfully, the writing team made the right choice in the end and saved both characters from the chopping block.
While working on the final season and getting the big finale all figured out, there was another character that almost ended up six feet under: Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk. Saul is one of the show’s best characters and even got his own prequel series, “Better Call Saul,” so killing him off would have had major repercussions. It honestly would have upset a lot of the fandom on top of impacting “Better Call Saul,” so it’s great that he was saved, but why did Gilligan even think about killing him in the first place?
In a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gilligan explained why he almost killed Saul and decided to pivot to just killing Walt (Bryan Cranston) instead, and it’s fascinating to think about just how different “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” might have been.
The Breaking Bad finale almost killed Saul
The “Breaking Bad” writing team went back and forth on whether or not they wanted to go out in a “bloodbath” or do something a little more restrained. Gilligan even said that at one point, “we talked about killing off every major character” in a “‘Wild Bunch’ bloodbath of an ending.” They eventually decided to back off a bit because they realized that even though that ending would be dramatic, it wouldn’t necessarily serve the story. And with Saul, they realized that it wouldn’t really make sense for his character. As Gilligan explained:
“Saul Goodman is kind of like a cockroach, in the sense that he’s probably going to survive all nuclear wars and he’ll still be out there somewhere after mankind has become extinct. He’s a survivor and therefore it’d be weird if he didn’t survive. Walter White, on the other hand, got a death sentence in the first act of the very first episode. It would be less than satisfying perhaps if he didn’t die at the end of the whole thing.”
It was absolutely vital that Walt died at the end of the series to complete Walt’s arc, even if the chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-kingpin’s death was the one moment that made Gilligan cry. But when it came to Saul, there were some pretty big factors besides his cockroach-like ability to survive nearly anything.
No good reason to kill Saul Goodman
Gilligan admitted that while the impact killing Saul would have on “Better Call Saul” was “probably a factor” in their decision to keep him alive, the bigger problem was that they just couldn’t come up with a really good reason or way to kill him. There just wasn’t that magical moment when they all felt like they had settled on the perfect way to take out Saul that would have meaning and be narratively satisfying, so he figured, “Why bother?”
He also pointed out that their involvement in “Better Call Saul” didn’t mean a character would survive “Breaking Bad,” of course, as Mike (Jonathan Banks) had a major role in the prequel series despite being killed off “sent to Belize” in the killer season 5 episode “Say My Name.” Characters weave throughout “Breaking Bad,” “Better Call Saul,” and the sequel film “El Camino,” with quite a few dying onscreen in “Breaking Bad” long before appearing in “Better Call Saul.” (If you’re confused on the timelines, don’t worry, we’ve got a primer on that.)
I’m glad that they didn’t kill off Saul because it would have cast a gloom over “Better Call Saul” that would have been hard to ignore, and that series is truly incredible. And like Gilligan said, Saul’s a survivor, a cockroach, the kind of guy that just wouldn’t go down because of Walter White.
