Breaking Bad AI Art Envisions Walter White As An Anime Character
Walter White becomes an anime character in a new piece of AI-generated art, which totally transforms the world of AMC’s hit show Breaking Bad.
New Breaking Bad AI-generated art imagines Bryan Cranston’s Walter White in the style of an anime character. First airing on AMC in 2008, creator Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad quickly became one of the channel’s most popular and critically acclaimed offerings. The show charts the transformation of Walt, a terminally ill high school chemistry teacher, who eventually becomes one of the most notorious drug kingpins in New Mexico after he decides to cook meth to support his family.
Now, AI-generated art shared by AI Dream Arts on Instagram completely reimagines Breaking Bad‘s Walt, depicting him in the anime style.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by AI Dream Arts (@ai.dream.arts)
The art retains Walt’s iconic look from later seasons of the show, featuring the character’s trademark glasses, shaved head, and a slightly tweaked take on his facial hair.
Would A Breaking Bad Anime Work?
Breaking Bad never got its own animated companion show but, interestingly, Better Call Saul did with Slippin’ Jimmy. The show was released as a six-episode limited series to coincide with the final season of Better Call Saul, and it followed a young Jimmy McGill’s adventures in Cicero, Illinois. While Breaking Bad never made the jump to animation in any form, there’s nothing to suggest it wouldn’t work.
The biggest problem with a Breaking Bad anime would be deciding what story to tell. The show could always just serve as a retelling of the events of Breaking Bad in a new style, but the original show tells the story so effectively that an animated rehashing of it would just feel unnecessary. If an animated venture did ever happen, it may be better off taking the Slippin’ Jimmy approach and making it a prequel.
Dean Norris’ Hank Schrader seems like a prime candidate for a prequel anime, with his previous adventures as part of the DEA representing a wealth of untapped potential. Although perhaps better as a traditionally animated sitcom instead of an anime, it’s also not hard to imagine some kind of prequel show about Walt’s life as a downtrodden chemistry teacher as he attempts to educate America’s youth and keep the peace at home. For now, however, AI art is probably the closest thing audiences will get to any kind of animated take on Breaking Bad.
