Better Call Saul: 5 Reasons Walt Should Appear In The Final Season (& 5 Why He Shouldn’t)

The moment Better Call Saul premiered, Breaking Bad fans have been waiting for Walter White to show up. While the spin-off has focused on Walt’s lawyer for the entirety of its run, filling in his origin story before he became the morally bankrupt attorney to Albuquerque’s meth king, it’s finally caught up with the “Saul Goodman” persona and the criminal lawyer stage of his career. Thus, Walt could easily make an appearance in the final season.

Fan service has become a touchy issue in this current age of Hollywood nostalgia. There are arguments both for and against Walt’s inclusion in the upcoming sixth and final season of Better Call Saul.

10 Should: Fans Will Be Disappointed If He Doesn’t

Whether or not Walt will make an appearance in Better Call Saul is one of the most common questions asked to Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan by interviewers, and he’s never ruled it out as a possibility.

This has always seemed to suggest that Walt would appear eventually, and the final season is the last chance for that to happen. If Walt doesn’t show up in the spin-off’s swansong season in some capacity, fans will probably be disappointed.

9 Shouldn’t: His Cameo In El Camino Felt Forced

If Bryan Cranston appears as Walter White in Better Call Saul, it wouldn’t be the first time he’s reprised his most iconic role since the Breaking Bad finale aired.

He also made a cameo appearance in a flashback scene in the other Breaking Bad spin-off, the Jesse-centric movie El Camino, and it felt a little forced. A potential Saul cameo would probably end up going the same way.

8 Should: It Could Fill In Some Of Breaking Bad’s Gaps

While Breaking Bad is a mostly airtight story and Better Call Saul has done a great job of filling in the blanks, there are still some unresolved mysteries — like Huell’s fate — that have yet to be wrapped up.

Connecting Better Call Saul more closely to Breaking Bad with an appearance by Walter White would allow the series to fill in some more of the flagship series’ gaps.

7 Shouldn’t: Better Call Saul Is The Story Of Jimmy McGill

From the beginning, Better Call Saul has decidedly been the story of Jimmy McGill, chronicling how a once-wayward young lawyer became the bright, colorful, eccentric picture of corruption seen in Breaking Bad.

In the final season, with the obligation to stick the landing with the saga of Saul, focusing on Jimmy’s journey is more important than ever. Walt could distract from that.

6 Should: Being Walt’s Lawyer Is Directly Linked To Saul’s Eventual Downfall

Saul Goodman may have just been a supporting character in Breaking Bad, but the events of the flagship series are crucial to his character arc. Being Heisenberg’s lawyer is directly linked to Saul’s eventual downfall, as it’s what forced him to relocate to black-and-white Nebraska.

If Better Call Saul’s final season aims to conclude the story of Jimmy McGill, then including his most powerful and problematic client might be inevitable.

5 Shouldn’t: It Would Just Be Fan Service

For all intents and purposes, the writers of Better Call Saul should be able to conclude their story without the inclusion of Walter White, so his inclusion would purely be for fan service.

There’s been a lot of discussion about fan service recently, with Luke Skywalker appearing in The Mandalorian and Captain America picking up Thor’s hammer in Avengers: Endgame, and it’s tricky to pull off as well as those examples did.

4 Should: Bryan Cranston Is Always Incredible

If Breaking Bad proved anything, it’s that Bryan Cranston is one of the greatest actors in the world. His ever-evolving performance as Walter White captivated audiences across the world for years.

Cranston is always incredible — even in his forced cameo appearance in El Camino, his performance was great — so he’d undoubtedly give a memorable turn if he played Walt in Better Call Saul.

3 Shouldn’t: Better Call Saul Already Has Plenty Of Returning Breaking Bad Characters

Across the first five seasons of Better Call Saul, the writers have already brought back a bunch of Breaking Bad characters: Mike, Gus, Hank, Gomez, Huell, Saul’s receptionist Francesca, even the jerk whose car got blown up by Walt.

With all these returning characters from Breaking Bad, it may not be necessary to include the meth-cooking antihero that the entire series revolved around.

2 Should: Saul’s Arc Could Be Woven Into Walt’s Arc After Their Paths Cross

There’s a lot of Saul’s life circa Breaking Bad that was left out of the series. As Better Call Saul fills in the blanks with its final season, it could weave Saul’s arc into Walt’s after their paths cross.

Walt and Saul’s first meeting was already covered in the aptly titled Breaking Bad episode “Better Call Saul,” but we may not have seen all the ways these two characters affected each other.

1 Shouldn’t: Vince Gilligan Needs To Preserve Walt’s Legacy

Ever since Breaking Bad went off the air with its pitch-perfect series finale, Walter White has been remembered as the most compelling character in television history. His harrowing five-season transformation was considered a game-changer in a medium that usually likes to keep things exactly the same for years.

If Walt makes a cameo appearance in Better Call Saul, then it would certainly be cool, but it might also cheapen his iconic legacy — like Darth Vader’s appearance in Rogue One.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
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Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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