“Breaking Bad” fans had another reason to revisit the series this past weekend, as Netflix launched the highly-anticipated sequel film, “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.” Judging by the reviews (and my own personal enjoyment of the film), it’s clear that ‘El Camino’ is going to delight longtime fans of the original series that just want to live in the world for two more hours. And according to star Aaron Paul, that enjoyment could have actually been extended to 3 hours, at one point.
Speaking to Collider, Paul was asked about how the final cut of the film differed from the version that was shot. Basically, the question that everyone wants to know is how much “Breaking Bad” goodness writer-director Vince Gilligan left on the cutting room floor and didn’t add to ‘El Camino?’
“About 30% of the movie was cut,” revealed Paul. “The original cut was about 3 hours.”
He added, “When I first saw [the new cut], I was like, ‘Awwh! This is so beautiful, but where’s the other part of the movie?’ He was like, ‘I don’t wanna bore people.’”
Paul said that he assured Gilligan that “people want more! And more is more in this situation.”
Alas, the extended cut wasn’t the version that was released. However, the actor does tease the possibility of another cut in the future and that maybe he can “convince [Gilligan] to release it.”
As for what is missing from the 2-hour cut of the film that might be seen in the extended version, Paul doesn’t give any specifics. He does admit that the cuts weren’t full scenes, but instead a lot of extended versions of scenes that were in the film already, but ended up being condensed in the final release.
READ MORE: ‘Breaking Bad’ Creator Vince Gilligan Once Again Confirms Walter White’s Fate
However, he does admit that there was one thing that Vince Gilligan cut that was the genesis of the project, but didn’t even make it past the script phase.
“There was a pretty serious thing that was cut that was the very first thing that Vince wrote when he was writing this film. It was the very first thing,” Paul said. “But he decided to cut it.”
He continued, “We actually didn’t even end up shooting it. It was just cut from the script.”
Obviously, it’s unlikely that Netflix is going to re-release a film soon after its launch. But in the case of “El Camino,” there is a shot that a new version of the film can be seen. You see, the film is said to have an early-2020 release on AMC, which would be a perfect time for the network to add some unseen footage to help pad the run-time after some of the more explicit scenes are removed or censored due to network issues. But at this point, that’s purely speculation.
“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” is available to watch now on Netflix.
