Better Call Saul: How Old Jimmy Is In The Prequel, Breaking Bad & As Gene

Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) is the key figure across both timelines shown in Better Call Saul, as well as an important supporting character in Breaking Bad, but just how old is he in each? Jimmy was first introduced under his pseudonym Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad season 2, episode 8, “Better Call Saul”. After becoming heavily involved in Walt & Jesse’s journey, the character was given a somewhat uncertain ending, as Ed Galbraith made him disappear at the end of the series.

Better Call Saul has since picked up his story both after and before Breaking Bad, showing Jimmy working in a Cinnabon as Gene, and also as a younger version of himself, chronicling how the well-meaning lawyer becomes the far more cynical Saul Goodman. Jimmy’s arc and transformation has been every bit as engrossing as that of Walter White before him, and it’s not over yet with another season of the show to come. But with the Breaking Bad universe now encompassing several timelines, and the same actor, Odenkirk, playing Jimmy/Saul/Gene in each, then what’s his age in all of them?

As revealed by his driver’s licence in Better Call Saul season 5 episode “JMM”, when Jimmy and Kim are getting married, he was born on November 12, 1960. That means that in Better Call Saul season 1, Jimmy McGill is 41-years-old, with the events of those episodes covering May-July 2002. Jimmy is still 41 in season 2, while season 3 spans him turning 42. Better Call Saul season 4 takes place over the course of a full year, so he’s 43 by the end of it, and that’s how old he still is in Better Call Saul season 5, which ends in June 2004.

Better Call Saul is still a few years away from Breaking Bad, the events of which start in 2008. When Saul Goodman is first introduced in season 2 of that show, then, he’s not long turned 48-years-old, with “Better Call Saul” taking place in December 2008. By the time he’s packing his bags to leave for Omaha at the end of Breaking Bad, Saul is 49-years-old, with those events happening in mid-to-late 2010. The flash-forwards to Gene that mark the beginning of each Better Call Saul season likely take place around late-2011 or early-2012, with Gene putting 2012 licence plates on his car, making him 51-years-old at that point.

Meanwhile, in Better Call Saul season 2 episode “Inflatable”, there’s a flashback to a young Jimmy in 1973; at this point, he would’ve been 12-13-years-old, though producer Thomas Schnauz told Yahoo! that “he’s like 9-years-old”. That was before the driver’s licence in “JMM”, but it’s also hardly a definitive statement anyway. Jimmy’s age is contrasted by that of Bob Odenkirk, who had to play Jimmy younger in Better Call Saul than he did in Breaking Bad. However, he is actually younger than the character in real life, born in October 1962. When first playing Saul in Breaking Bad, Odenkirk was 47, almost the same age as his character. But when first playing Jimmy, aged 41, in Better Call Saul, Odenkirk was by then 53, over a decade older than Jimmy and just slightly older than Gene, not that it’s impacted his sublime performance any.

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