Producer Thomas Schnauz explains why Breaking Bad, which took place between 2008 and 2010. But Goodman is actually younger on the spinoff Better Call Saul, which takes place between 2002 and 2004.
Of course though Better Call Saul may be set before Breaking Bad, it actually began production a few years after the vaunted AMC drama went off the air. As a result, BCS actors like Bob Odenkirk, Giancarlo Esposito and Jonathan Banks, who appeared on Breaking Bad as well, look significantly older on Better Call Saul than they did on the original show – even though their characters are supposed to be several years younger. Actors aging beyond their characters is of course less of a problem now than it used to be, thanks to digital deaging effects, which allow film and TV creators to shave years off of their stars if need be.
But though such digital deaging technology is clearly available to Better Call Saul, the show’s producers have elected to not employ it. And it turns out there’s a very simple reason why Better Call Saul doesn’t rectify its actors looking too old for their characters using VFX. As writer-producer-director Schnauz explained to an inquisitive fan on Twitter, it’s all about money and time. Schnauz said, “You either go with it or you don't. We don't have the time or budget to do that.”
Obviously with main cast actors like Odenkirk, Banks and Esposito all needing to undergo deaging, it would be a very expensive and time-consuming process for Better Call Saul to go down that road. And frankly not all degaing technology is entirely convincing anyway. The very high-budget movie The Irishman famously used VFX to deage stars Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, but came under criticism for the effect ultimately not looking good. The Mandalorian too came under some fire from fans for its rather poor job of deaging Mark Hamill for the big season 2 Luke Skywalker reveal. But those effects were thankfully done somewhat better when Skywalker appeared again on The Book of Boba Fett.
On the one hand it’s true that Better Call Saul would be more accurate if Odenkirk, Banks and Esposito all looked a few years younger than they did on Breaking Bad. But on the other hand, the drama is so compelling on BCS that one scarcely notices that several of its main stars have clearly aged in ways that don’t make sense with the overall Breaking Bad universe time line. Deaging VFX may be very advanced and sometimes even convincing, but in the end there is no better special effect than good storytelling. Better Call Saul doesn’t need expensive and time-consuming VFX because it has something more effective: the ability to make the audience suspend their disbelief.
Source: Thomas Schnauz/Twitter