'Breaking Bad' Creator Wants Cranston for 'Saul'

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AMC

As Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan basks in the drama's recent ratings-busting finale on AMC, he's also revealing some details about his series spinoff Better Call Saul, in which he expects to bring back Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul for cameos.

Gilligan tellsThe Hollywood Reporter that he'd love to bring back Walter White (Cranston) and Jesse Pinkman (Paul) to Better Call Saul, which focuses on the show's shady strip mall-based criminal lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), and is set before the launch of Breaking Bad.

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"There's obviously a danger inherent in doing a spinoff, but I just love the character of Saul Goodman so much, and part of me doesn't want to say no to this world," Gilligan says about developing the prequel. "We've had to find the ongoing itch that Saul needs to scratch, so to speak, or else we wouldn't have much of a show."

He added that both Cranston and Paul -- in addition to some of Breaking Bad's other actors -- have already expressed interest in appearing in Better Call Saul. "Personally, I'd have a hard time resisting putting all these guys in for a cameo or two every now and then," he told THR.

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Although Saul was initially conceived as a half-hour sitcom, Gilligan said he and showrunner Peter Gould realized they weren't comfortable with that formulaic format. "We're both one-hour drama guys. So we figured, 'Why not shoot Saul in the same way?' Let's shoot it in Albuquerque, let's get as much of the crew back together as possible, and let's do it the way we did it before so that it will be of a piece with that pre-existing fictional universe that we had so much fun creating."