Giancarlo Esposito Confirms His Return As Gus Fring On ‘Better Call Saul’ By Sealing The Deal With Chicken

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Most knew that Giancarlo Esposito would be making some sort of appearance in Better Call Saul season three after AMC released their upbeat tease for Los Pollos Hermanos earlier in the week. Now it can be confirmed thanks to the actor’s appearance at the show’s TCA 2017 panel, handing out some Pollos Hermanos chicken for those in attendance. It’s a welcome sight for fans of Breaking Bad and the Bob Odenkirk-led prequel, mostly because it gives us a chance to see what led to that point where Fring meets Walter White near the end of season two. While we know Walter White’s story from start to finish, the details for Fring still leave room for exploration according to Esposito:

“I had to remind myself in coming back to be really present with the character, and that in this time, he’s more immature. He’s still finding his way… So I’m excited to be back. Certainly, Vince has described to me a situation where Gus is a very cagey character…he was a guy who wanted revenge, a guy who wanted to create a business, but he was also a guy who was very caring with his people. So I want to see where we go with it, and sometimes it’s more exciting to have a character who’s more mysterious.”

The process of bringing Esposito back to the show was slow, but he was open because he “loved being with this family of filmmakers,” even joking that he’d be up for a show called The Rise Of Gus. For Peter Gould and Vince Gilligan, there wasn’t a plan B if they couldn’t bring Gustavo Fring back to the fold and it led to a few jokes about that anagram that “hidden” near the end of last season:

Vince Gilligan: “Giancarlo’s been a part of the family forever, and we know what a great guy he is. And not to get into the dealmaking, we knew there was only one way to go forward. how do you not see this wonderful character in the show? It’s a show we thought was going to be easier to write when we started… Every year, and this season is no different, every season is inching the ball down the field, closer and closer, sometimes baby steps, sometimes large leaps, of the journey of Jimmy McGill toward Saul Goodman. In that sense, there’s a certain consitency to the show.”

One of the happiest members of the show seems to be Jonathan Banks, cracking jokes at every opportunity and showing off some of the friendly banter he shares with Esposito. Banks gets a good one in by saying the actor “has never been on time in his life,” prompting an equally sharp reply:

“I have never missed a call in my life. The difference between me and you is I have hair and it’s done when I get there!”

The Breaking Bad spinoff will return on Monday April 10th, following up on a season where the show came into its own and stepped partially out of its predecessor’s shadow. That said, there are hints that Saul might follow up on where the original series ended in some manner. Gould teased as much while discussing the beauty of the show’s role in the Breaking Bad story:

“One of the things that’s fascinating is we always talk about it as a prequel to Breaking Bad, but in some ways it’s a sequel to Breaking Bad. So who knows what we’re going to see?”

That’s certainly a fun way to look at the series, especially given how the whole of Breaking Bad played around with timelines a bit in the past. Season two’s glimpses at the disaster that would highlight the finale and the final season’s bookends with Walter at Denny’s come to mind. The sky is the limit for this show at this point and season three should be the point that the show becomes a must see on your schedule.

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