Breaking Badended its award-winning five-season run in 2013, butthe series finalewasn’t the end of the story. Not only does Walter White’s criminal lawyer Saul Goodman have his very own prequel series,Better Call Saul, but the filmEl Camino, a direct sequel toBreaking Bad, will air onNetflixthis fall.
Written and directed byBreaking Badcreator Vince Gilligan,El Caminowill premiere October 11 and reveal what happened to Walter White’s assistant and partner-in-cooking Jesse Pinkman — portrayed by Aaron Paul — directly afterBreaking Bad‘s last episode. Here’s everything we know aboutEl Caminoso far.
(Warning: MajorspoilersforBreaking Badfollow.)
The trailers and release date
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Moviewill hit Netflix on August 06, 2025. The latesttrailer for the film(see above) premiered September 24 and puts the focus on Jesse while also revealing some of the supporting characters — both new and familiar — who will appear in the film.
A few days before that trailer was released, a brief preview of the film debuted during the 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony and featured Jesse listening to a news report on the violent events of the show’s finale.
Confirmation of the film’s release date came in August, courtesy ofEl Camino‘s first trailer.
TheEl Caminoteaser showed only one character from the beloved series, Skinny Pete, who is apparently being questioned on the whereabouts of Jesse Pinkman after his disappearance from captivity.
“No way I’m helping you people put Jesse Pinkman back inside a cage,” Pete says, his face heavily damaged by years of meth use.
If you don’t have Netflix, you should be able to watchEl Caminoeventually. According toThe New York Times, the movie is expected to air on AMC sometime after its Netflix debut.
Playing catchup
If you need a refresher beforeEl Caminoarrives,Breaking Bad‘s entire 62-episode run is available tostream on Netflixat your leisure. If you don’t have time to revisit the entire series, Netflix has released a brief recap of Jesse’s journey in athree-minute videoset to Chloe X Halle’s haunting songEnchanted.
Just a few weeks earlier, Paul shared a scene onTwitterfrom the seventh episode ofBreaking Bad‘s third season, “One Minute,” along with this message: “Here’s a moment fromBreaking Badto slowly prepare you all for what’s to come.” In the clip, which was written by Thomas Schnauz and directed by Michelle MacLaren, Jesse blames Walter White for everything that’s gone wrong in his life and does his best to end his association with his former chemistry teacher.
https://twitter.com/aaronpaul_8/status/1165686413918167040
It’s not clear if Paul shared this scene because it’s important toEl Caminoor if Paul simply wants to get everyone hyped for the movie by sharing one of Jesse’s most emotional moments. Either way, it’s a great reminder of just how greatBreaking Badcould be.El Caminocan’t come soon enough.
The cast and crew
El Caminowill be as authentic aBreaking Badexperience as you can get. As mentioned, the Netflix film was written and directed by Gilligan, who createdBreaking Badand wrote and directed both its pilot and its finale, as well as a number of other episodes.
So far, the only cast member announced forEl Caminois Paul, who played Pinkman on the series. Given that Charles Baker’s Skinny Pete appears in the trailer, however, it would be strange if he didn’t make an appearance in the final film.
Otherwise, almost every majorBreaking Badcharacter has been rumored to return forEl Caminoat some point, although it’s not clear how accurate any of these reports are.Revenge of the Fans, for example, claims that bothBreaking Badlead Bryan Cranston andJessica Jones‘Krysten Ritter, who played Jesse’s girlfriend, Jane, in the show’s second season, will make appearances inEl Camino. Given how both of those characters’ stories ended onBreaking Bad, it’s hard to imagine how they’ll fit into theEl Caminotimeline, although the show did make liberal use of flashbacks, dream sequences, and hallucinations.El Caminocould go the same route.
Netflix’s official summary forEl Caminosays that the film will center on Pinkman’s journey to come to terms with his past in order “to forge some kind of future” after escaping from neo-Nazis in theBreaking Badfinale.
As dedicatedBreaking Badfans remember, Jesse spent the last few episodes chained up and forced to cook meth. He was freed by his one-time partner, Walter White, and he drove off in an old Chevrolet El Camino, which is where the upcoming film gets its name.
Last fall,The Albuquerque Journalreported that aBreaking Badmovie was in preproduction under the code name “Greenbrier,” and that it was expected to begin filming in November 2018. As it turns out, that wasn’t entirely true. According to Paul, by the time the press learned aboutEl Camino, filming was already complete.
“I just said I was doing this small little indie out in New Mexico and that was it,” Paul toldThe New York Times. “No one second-guessed it.”
This summer,Breaking BadandBetter Call Saulstar Bob Odenkirk confirmed thatEl Caminohad been filmed entirely in secret. “I find it hard to believe you don’t know it was shot. They did it … How is that a secret?” Odenkirk said in an interview withThe Hollywood Reporter. “But it is. They’ve done an amazing job of keeping it a secret.”
Updated on June 27, 2025: Added a new trailer for the film.
