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Better Call Saul Still Needs One Spinoff, And Breaking Bad's Other Sequel Shows Exactly How It Could Work

By Faith Roswell

Published May 2, 2025

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greatest TV spinoffs of all time. Breaking Bad follows the mild-mannered teacher Walter White as he transforms into the terrifying Heisenberg, while Better Call Saul follows the struggling lawyer Jimmy McGill as he becomes the slippery lawyer, Saul Goodman, as seen in Breaking Bad.

There are several Breaking Bad characters who appear in Better Call Saul, and the series explores their history and lives in greater detail. That said, the two shows are very different. Breaking Bad is generally darker and extremely violent, while Better Call Saul is an excellent character study, delivering an exciting mix of a legal drama and a tension-filled crime show. Though Better Call Saul gives a glimpse into the shady past of characters we know from Breaking Bad, there is room for more of the fan-favorite characters to have their own spinoffs.

It's Been 3 Years Since Better Call Saul Ended, But It Still Needs A Gus Fring Spinoff

Better Call Saul Never Fully Explored Gus's Mysterious Past (But This Could Be A Good Thing)

Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring looking to the side in Better Call Saul

Of all the characters in the Breaking Bad universe, Gus Fring is one of the most exciting and terrifying. The owner of Los Pollos Hermanos and the meth kingpin is arguably the best villain in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, with his emotionless and extremely polite demeanor in direct contrast to other dangerous characters, like Tuco. Though Better Call Saul elaborated on Gus' story, there are events and mysteries in his Chilean past that could be explored, and a Gus spinoff could give more of an insight into the mind of the closed-off character.

Gus's eerily calm nature is his defining feature.

Gus Fring is one of the most powerful characters in Better Call Saul, and this is partly due to his ability to keep his emotions in check. While a flashback scene in Breaking Bad shows a horrified Gus reacting to the death of a loved one, this is an extremely rare display of emotion for him. A Gus spinoff could show his more vulnerable moments and explore his backstory, but this also risks ruining the best part of the character. Gus's eerily calm nature is his defining feature, so a spinoff could focus on one moment in his life instead.

Breaking Bad's First Sequel Proves That Gus' Story Doesn't Need An Entire Series

A Gus Fring Movie Could Answer What Happened In Santiago

Better Call Saul - Gus Fring and Jimmy McGill

Jesse Pinkman's harrowing last Breaking Bad scene showed him driving out of the Welker compound, leaving his fate open to interpretation. Breaking Bad's underrated sequel, El Camino, ties up this loose end, showing Jesse finally getting his fresh start. The events of Better Call Saul happen before Breaking Bad, so Gus is not yet dead. But as the audience knows his eventual fate, there is less that can be done with his story. Therefore, a Gus spinoff could be done in the same way as El Camino, with a movie tackling an individual point in his backstory.

The live-action Breaking Bad universe in chronological order
Title	Release date	Rotten Tomatoes critics rating	Rotten Tomatoes audience rating
Better Call Saul	2015 - 2022	98%	96%
Breaking Bad	2008 - 2013	96%	97%
El Camino - A Breaking Bad Movie	2019	92%	81%

One mystery that is alluded to in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul is Gus's past in Santiago. While we know that he is from Chile, and arrived in Mexico in 1986, very little else is revealed about his past before he began his drug empire. Gus claimed that Augusto Pinochet's fascist government destroyed his records, and while this is historically accurate, it may not be true in his case. Gus's interactions with other characters suggest that he could have had a high-up government position, which makes his descent into the drug world even more intriguing.

Sadly, Gus Fring Probably Won't Get A Sequel In The Breaking Bad Universe

Mike Would Be Another Great Candidate For A Spinoff

A third series set in the Breaking Bad universe has been suggested before, and even Giancarlo Esposito (Gus) had an idea for a spinoff. Esposito told British GQ that he thinks Gus was "a military guy who worked his way up through the ranks," but that he wanted to control his own future. This would be a fascinating idea, but Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator, Vince Gilligan, has not given a hopeful response. He told Variety that, while he thinks there are more stories to be told, "what I’d like to do is leave it be."

Giancarlo Esposito as Gus Fring and Bryan Cranston as Walter White from Breaking Bad

Related

A Gus Fring Spinoff Would Hurt Breaking Bad In A Way That Better Call Saul Never Did

Gus Fring is easily one of Breaking Bad's best characters, but a spinoff risks damaging the original series, something Better Call Saul avoided.

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Of all the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul characters that could lead their own spinoffs, another option would be Mike Ehrmantraut. Like Gus, Mike is extremely stoic and has a murky past. We know a little more about Mike than Gus, as it is established that Mike is a former police officer, but the details of his past have mostly gone unexplored. A Better Call Saul prequel could explore Mike's former life in the police force and eventual connections with both Jimmy McGill and Gus Fring, even including other characters from the Breaking Bad universe.

Source: British GQ, Variety

Better Call Saul