‘Breaking Bad’ season 5: A surprise via Dean Norris

Imagine right now that if actor Dean Norris had managed to get his way, the final season of “Breaking Bad” would have ultimately ended up feeling very different than it does now.

Speaking in a recent interview from the show’s set in Albuquerque, actor Dean Norris, whose character of Hank is set to be a huge part of the final eight episodes courtesy of a certain discovery that he made inside of Walter White’s bathroom, admitted that he originally made a very interesting request based in part on the thinking that the entire final season would be shot at once, and he could go join a comedy pilot later on:

“I called [series creator] Vince [Gilligan] and I said, ‘Hey man, maybe Hank should die in the first eight. Wouldn’t that be a great ending?’ … When they [AMC] originally picked up the 16 [episodes] I thought, ‘Great, I can do a pilot, do the 16 and then be free to do a show.’ And then at some point f**king whoever decided they were going to split it into two eights so it cut me off from doing a pilot — and I had a pilot I wanted to do.”

The ironic thing about Norris’ statement is that the woman behind his onscreen wife in Betsy Brandt has just landed a role on the much-anticipated new comedy pilot starring Michael J. Fox, and she actually just started shooting it over the past couple of days.

Ultimately, we have a feeling that Norris and many other “Breaking Bad” actors are going to have no problem at all landing new work once this is over. After all, Bryan Cranston has already secured a development deal, and Anna Gunn just signed on to do a rare drama series from Bravo.

If you want to see some new “Breaking Bad” set photos via Aaron Paul, be sure to head on over to the link here.

Photo: AMC