It’s still up in the air whether Vince Gilligan’s Bob Odenkirk-centric Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul is a prequel, sequel, or takes place during the time frame of its predecessor, but Gilligan tells EW that he wants Jonathan Banks to potentially reprise his role of Mike Ehrmantraut on the new show.
When asked if he wants any Breaking Bad character to pop up or have an extended role on Saul, Gilligan replied:
The character that springs to mind would be Mike. That would be a great deal of fun. I would say the sky’s the limit, at least theoretically speaking. Realistically speaking, we’ve got a whole lot of actors, and the world is now well-aware of their wonderful talents and abilities, and therefore Breaking Bad has probably made it tougher for Peter and I to get some of these folks pinned down for another TV show. They’re off making big movies and doing Broadway plays and whatnot, and that’s exactly the way it should be. That is a high-class problem that we will have to contend with as we go forward with Better Call Saul, if we do indeed want to touch base with some of these characters… Better Call Saul could be The Love Boat of its generation, where instead of Milton Berle showing up in a sailor’s cap, hopefully it could be Aaron Paul, also in a sailor’s cap. [Laughs]
Gilligan previously said that he wants to use Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul in cameo roles on Better Call Saul as their Breaking Bad characters, so Saul, which is expected to debut sometime in 2014, could turn into a show with a lot of familiar faces in it.
