“Breaking Bad” Creator: Make Good Guys Again

“Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul” creator Vince Gilligan has asked that the film and TV industry should give more attention to good guys than villains.

Gilligan accepted the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award at the ceremony for his career of TV writing and acknowledged much of the honor was for his creation of “one of the all-time great bad guys” in the form of his “Breaking Bad” lead character Walter White.

But, after warning the crowd he was going to ‘go political’, he spoke about how real life has ‘too many bad guys in it’ – something he says everyone can agree on even if they can’t agree as to who the baddies actually are:

“All things being equal, I think I’d rather be celebrated for creating someone a bit more inspiring. In 2025, it’s time to say that out loud, because we are living in an era where bad guys, the real-life kind, are running amuck.

Bad guys who make their own rules, bad guys who no matter what they tell you, are only out for themselves. Who am I talking about? Well this is Hollywood, so guess.

But here’s the weird irony, in our profoundly divided country, everybody seems to agree on one thing: there are too many real-life bad guys, it’s just we’re living in different realities so we’ve all got different lists.”

It’s then he asked that writers go back to delivering more aspirational characters – ones who don’t ignore the rules like villains so often do and warns of the dangers of making the villains too appealing – citing Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter as examples:

“I say we write more good guys. For decades we made the villains too sexy… viewers everywhere, all around the world, pay attention. They say here’s this badass, I want to be that cool. When that happens, fictional bad guys stop being the precautionary tales they were intended to be. God help us, they’ve become aspirational. Maybe what the world needs now are some good, old-fashioned, greatest generation types who give more than they take… Give this some thought.

He acknowledges writing bad guys is fun and “easier to write well,” but characters that make things “a little bit better” during tough times in history are creations he’d be proud of.

That may inform his next work, as Gilligan is set to launch a new psychological sci-fi series on Apple TV+ this year starring Rhea Seehorn. Already shot, the series has been compared to Spielberg’s E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in terms of tone and delves into the “human condition in a surprising way.”

Source: Deadline

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