Walter White’s moral acclimation from mild-mannered science teacher human punching bag to begrudging meth cook to actual evil person finally has an end point. After weeks of fruitless negotiation between Breaking Bad’s network AMC and producer Sony Pictures Television, both parties have resolved their differences and renewed the Emmy-winning drama for a 16 episode order that will conclude the entire series. Production on the new order will begin early next year though it is not yet known when and how AMC will deliver the final episodes, as an extra long final season, or, as some pundits have suggested, a truncated two season arc akin to the final run of The Sopranos.
Creator Vince Gilligan had this to say: “It’s a funny irony – I’d hate to know the date of my own last day on earth, but I’m delighted to know what Walter White’s will be (episodically speaking). This is a great gift to me and to my wonderful writers. It’s knowledge which will allow us to properly build our story to a satisfying conclusion. Now, if we don’t manage to pull that off, we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves. Breaking Bad has been a dream job these past four years. Working with the best cast and crew in television has no doubt spoiled me for future projects. I’m lucky to get to work with them on sixteen more episodes, and I will always be grateful to both AMC and Sony Television, who from the beginning, believed in our show and supported me creatively and professionally. We have been able to take risks with Breaking Bad which would not have been possible on other networks.”
