If you felt that the ending of AMC’s popular series Breaking Bad was sad, know that it could have been even more melancholic.
In celebration of the show’s 10th anniversary, which includes a one-minute animation that amusingly summarizes its 62 episodes, creator Vince Gilligan and former staff members revealed that the series originally had another two alternative endings.
In an interview with Variety, Gilligan explained one case where ‘Walt’ ends up as the sole survivor.
“I remember one afternoon, somebody said --- and I was kind of into it for a while --- ‘Wouldn’t it be really ironic if Walt is the only one to survive this?’ Because it does seem so obvious that Walt should expire at the end of the final episode --- but maybe he’s the only one left alive. Maybe he still does have a death sentence, but we go out on him alive, and maybe his whole family’s been wiped out. That would have been really fucking dark.” The second option, presented by writer Sam Catlin, leaves ‘Walt’ dying in obscurity while his family is kept alive.
“There was debate about that, and there was one pitch that he would die ignominiously on a gurney in a hospital, sort of pushed aside as a John Doe while life continued without him. I think the thinking behind that was, so much of what he chased was a sense of status and a sense of importance. It would have been more grim for him to be just tossed aside and overlooked at the end.”
GeekTyrant writer Mick Joest shared that he actually prefers this ending to the actual one. “No disrespect to the end of the series, but Walt taking on a bunch of skinheads with a rotating gun in his trunk felt like the one part of the series where things felt a little fantastical. Seeing Walt ultimately die alone and away from his family sounds like a sadder and grounded ending, albeit less satisfying for fans of the series.”
Breaking Bad fans, do you think either of these alternate conclusions could’ve beat the original?
