Breaking Bad Renewed For Fifth
And Final Season

 

We all knew that the sad saga of Breaking Bad‘s Walter White (Bryan Cranston) would one day come to an end, and now that end is upon us. AMC confirmed in a press release that the Vince Gilligan-created series, now in its fourth season, will return next year with one last hurrah.

The fifth and final season will run for 16 episodes, although there’s no word yet as to how those will be broken up. It’s possible we’ll see the story’s close unfold in two parts, perhaps even extending into 2013. There are eight episodes left to go in the current season, which kicked off last month.

“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),” Gilligan said in a statement. “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.”

An interesting choice of words from Gilligan, about knowing Walter’s “last day on earth.” Note that the “episodically speaking” bit was added; his quote without it would seem to confirm that the series’ star will be meeting an unfortunate end. It’s total speculation of course, though I’d be curious to see what a poll of the show’s fans would say about their predictions for Walter. I’m guessing most of us — myself included — have thought of Walter as doomed all along.