Roughly a decade since Breaking Bad concluded its universally acclaimed five-season run on AMC, and less than a year since briefly reviving the Walter White / Heisenberg character for the Bob Odenkirk-led spin-off series Better Call Saul, Bryan Cranston has reprised what is arguably his most iconic role – this time for a Super Bowl LVII commercial.
Initially teased by Cranston himself via Instagram with a post simply captioned “breaking soon,” the campaign deemed considerable enough to bring the fictitious anti-hero out of retirement (again) involves a different kind of highly-addictive product: the Frito-Lay snack brand PopCorners. More specifically, the chip’s white cheddar variant.
The ad spot written and directed by Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan himself also welcomed the return of Aaron Paul as former student and meth-cooking amigo Jesse Pinkman and – hilariously enough – Raymond Cruz as the sociopathic local kingpin and initial meth distribution partner Tuco Salamanca, recreating two iconic scenes from season 1.
As alluded to earlier, this isn’t exactly the first occasion wherein Bryan Cranston has been featured in a Super Bowl ad spot as Walter White / Heisenberg. Back in 2015, the former was front and centre for the equally tongue-in-cheek Esurance ‘Say My Name’ commercial.
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Outside of Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad universe, Bryan Cranston has apparently been occupying himself with the potential revival of the other syndication darling he’s best known for: Malcolm in the Middle.
A few months prior to all this, ex-child star and series lead Frankie Muniz revealed Cranston – who portrayed his onscreen father Hal Wilkerson – was in the process of developing a modern-day reboot.
“I know Bryan Cranston is really into the idea and he’s kind of heading writing the script and getting everything rolling,” Frankie Muniz told Fox News.
“So, there might be something. I would be down 100%.”
“When I was filming the show, I obviously was a kid. We did seven seasons, 151 episodes. I didn’t really watch the show when it was on, but I’ve now since watched the show with my wife.”
“We [watched] all 151 episodes… I realised, ‘Wow, that’s what we were making.’… I can separate myself from being on it and watching it as a fan. I would love to know what the family’s up to.”
Incidentally, Bryan Cranston almost turned down Breaking Bad due to Malcolm in the Middle-related commitments.
“[In 2006] Fox said, ‘Keep the sets up. We might do an eighth season of Malcolm in the Middle. And everyone was like, ‘Yeahhh… that’d be great,’” said Cranston.
“In late April and early May, they called, when the upfronts are going on. They said, ‘Nope… we had a very good pilot season. Thank you guys, you did well. You’re on your own.’ So we thought, ‘Ahh, that’s too bad.’”
“Later that month, I get the call to go see a guy called Vince Gilligan. ‘Do you remember him from X-Files?’ ‘Kinda.’ ‘He wants to see you about a new project called Breaking Bad.’”
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Cranston added: “I read it and I thought, ‘Oh my god this is amazing.’ I met with him. He said, ‘I want to turn Mr Chips into Scarface and I think you’re the guy to do it.’ We shot the [Breaking Bad] pilot in February and March of 2007.”
“So had we got that eighth season of Malcolm in the Middle, I would not have been available to shoot that pilot and someone else would be talking to you.”
“It is absolutely my belief, I dogmatically believe this, that a career in our business cannot be fully realised without a healthy dose of luck sprinkled throughout.”
Super Bowl LVII is scheduled to go down on February 12th, 2023 at Glendale’s State Farm Stadium (Arizona) – check out Bryan Cranston as Walter White / Heisenberg for PopCorners above and below.
