Is Walter White dead? Breaking Bad creator finally confirms ending

Ever since the finale, fans have been debating whether the show’s antihero protagonist is actually dead. Now we know the answer.

Walter White is gone, so get over it.

After years of speculation, Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan finally confirmed the fate of Bryan Cranston’s beloved character ahead of the Netflix release of the spin-off film El Camino this week.

For some fans, the 2013 series finale was somewhat enigmatic. With Heisenberg (nee Mr White) bleeding on the floor, having sustained a gunshot wound and swarmed by police, countless fans have dedicated threads and discussion boards over whether the show’s antihero protagonist made it out in one piece.

Bryan Cranston as Walter White in the final scene from Breaking Bad. Picture: AP Photo/AMC, Ursula Coyote

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Speculation was further fuelled when Cranston posited that “maybe Walter White did get away with it” during a cast reunion at San Diego Comic-Con in 2018.

“Was there a coroner’s report? No. Was there a listing in the obituaries? No,” Cranston said.

But Gilligan shut down rumours that Walt is still alive on The Rich Eisen Show this week, ahead of the movie’s premiere on Netflix.

“Yeah, I’m gonna give you that one, Rich, because I love you so much,” he said during the interview. “Yes, Walter White is dead. Yes.”

Gilligan’s reveal marked a long-awaited confirmation for fans who believed that it wasn’t the end for Walter White. In 2013, Gilligan hosted a Reddit AMA but was much more elusive about the ending years later when fans asked if Walter White was dead.

“Sure looked that way to me!” he said at the time.

Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston at the world premiere of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. Picture: Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix

But when asked if Cranston will reprise his character for El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, which picks up right where the show left off and follows Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), Gilligan stuttered until Eisen moved on.

The continuation film reportedly has a top-secret cameo played by an undisclosed “key cast member” who is said to have used “a private jet to shuttle in and out of Albuquerque, NM, without notice”.

Cranston alluded that his character could make a cameo in the film in some capacity during a June interview with Entertainment Tonight and also confirmed his character is deceased.

“It could be! Could be (in) a flashback or a flashforward,” he said. “I’m still dead, Walter White, I don’t know what (could happen.)”

Meanwhile, fellow cast member Jonathan Banks, who plays Mike Ehrmantraut, spilled that his character would be in El Camino despite being killed off on the show.

“Yes. They’ll hit me in the head for saying this, but yes,” Banks confirmed to ET Canada. “Why not? None of those guys hit very hard anyway.”

El Camino drops on Netflix on Friday, October 11 from 6pm AEDT.

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission