For many of you, Netflix helped popularize Vince Gilligan’s epic AMC series about a certain high school chemistry teacher-turned brilliant drug lord — or, at least, the streaming service helped give Breaking Bad and the story of Walter White’s transformation more fans than it had during the years it originally aired and ensured a kind of longevity to the fandom around the show.
So it should probably come as no surprise that Gilligan’s next Breaking Bad-themed project, in addition to the spinoff series Better Call Saul which has a fifth season currently in the works, is a feature-length sequel to the original series. The movie will focus on Walter’s protege of sorts, Jesse Pinkman — and the interesting thing is it’s reportedly going to stream on Netflix. Before it airs on AMC.
This news was first reported by Deadline and confirmed from several sources by Variety, which of course notes that this is the opposite of the original show’s roll-out strategy. (Breaking Bad first premiered on AMC back in 2008 and ended up on Netflix later.) Per Variety:
Details of the film’s plot are being kept under tight wraps. It has been previously reported, however, that the film would star Aaron Paul and would follow his character — Jesse Pinkman — in the aftermath of the events of the original series finale. Original series creator Vince Gilligan is writing and directing the project.
This is apparently the movie titled “Greenbrier” that, according to the New Mexico Film Office, was set to shoot in Albuquerque (the setting for Breaking Bad) from November through this month. According to a description of that film, the movie “tracks the escape of a kidnapped man and his quest for freedom.”
Fans of the series, Variety offers as a reminder, “will recall that Pinkman was kidnapped by a gang of neo-Nazis and forced to continue cooking meth for them until he escaped with the aid of Walter White.” The publication continues: “It is unknown if Bryan Cranston, who played main character Walter White in the series, would appear in the film. Cranston previously confirmed the film was happening but would not say whether or not he would be involved.”
