Breaking Bad (franchise)
neo-Western crime drama franchise
Breaking Bad is an American neo-Western crime media franchise created by Vince Gilligan, primarily based on the two television series, Breaking Bad (2008–2013) and Better Call Saul (2015–2022), and the film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019). The fictional universe is sometimes informally referred to as the "Gilliverse".
Breaking Bad revolves around chemistry teacher-turned-methamphetamine drug lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his former student and fellow crook Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). Better Call Saul, the prequel/sequel series, follows the origins and eventual fate of criminal lawyer Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), whom Walter and Jesse eventually hire in Breaking Bad, as well as police officer-turned-criminal and cleaner Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), who becomes associated with all three men over the course of both series. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, the sequel film, concludes the story of Jesse, now a fugitive, after the events of Breaking Bad. Gilligan said he felt the three works can be seen independently from one another, but exist in the same framework and need to be viewed together to receive the full cumulative experience.
The two television series and the film are set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and give a modernized twist to Westerns set in the region. Each of the three entries were produced at Albuquerque Studios and emboldened success for the media in the city and film in the state. Both series originally aired on AMC, while the film premiered on Netflix, on which the two television series aired internationally (outside of United States). The franchise is owned by Sony Pictures Television and received strong critical acclaim; numerous awards were given to Breaking Bad, to Better Call Saul, and to El Camino.
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This entry incorporates text from “Breaking Bad (franchise)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.