The X-Files Episode that Led to Bryan Cranston Playing Walter White in Breaking Bad

This guy is Vince Gilligan, the current creator/writer/director/producer of Breaking Bad.  Before Breaking Bad, though, he was a producer on the X-Files.










In X-Files Season 6, Episode 2 "Drive," which aired in November of 1998, Gilligan wrote a story about a desperate man inflicted with a terminal disease.  

This man, coincidentally, was played by Bryan Cranston.

Gilligan later explained that when he was casting the role of Walter White in Breaking Bad, which premiered ten years later in 2008, he knew he needed to pick Bryan Cranston after having seen his work on the X-Files episode:

“We had this villain, and we needed the audience to feel bad for him when he died,” Gilligan said. “Bryan alone was the only actor who could do that, who could pull off that trick. And it is a trick. I have no idea how he does it.”

And that is how an X-Files cameo a decade ago led to Bryan Cranston playing Walter White on Breaking Bad.