El Camino original ending revealed by Breaking Bad creator: ‘They thought I was INSANE’

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR EL CAMINO AHEAD. Six years ago Breaking Bad ended with Jesse driving away to freedom. What happened next was left to our imaginations. But then Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan decided to write El Camino to explore just that, and his original idea for the ending was not popular with his peers.

Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Gilligan said: “I didn’t get super far down the road, but it was probably going to be a young woman who needed some help.

“He was hiding out by the Canadian border, and this woman was working at a motel as a housekeeper or something.  

“[He] goes into the process of saving her, knowing full well that he’s going to suffer for it, he’s going to get caught for it, but he does it anyway. 

“And the last scene would be maybe him in a jail cell but at peace for the first time since the movie began.

“I think there was going to be this component where he couldn’t sleep. 

“He wouldn’t get a single night sleep for a week or so upon escaping.”

READ MORE: WILL GAME OF THRONES GET A MOVIE LIKE EL CAMINO?

The Breaking Bad creator continued: “The police are looking for him and he’s too haunted and he’s too adrenaline-charged. 

“And at the end of the thing, he’s in a jail cell, and ironically he can fall asleep like a baby. And I thought, ‘Ah, that’d be kind of cool.’

“I pitched some version of that to my girlfriend Holly and I also separately pitched that to [Breaking Bad executive producer/Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould] and the writers and everybody looked at me like I was absolutely insane.

“[They said: ‘You can’t have Jesse back in a cell at the end of the movie! People will tar and feather you!’ 

“I’m glad I listened to them. I think there is a version of that movie that if perfectly executed would work, but I don’t know that I was the guy to pull it off. I’m glad I wound up doing it the way I did it.”

In reality, El Camino ended with Jesse managing to escape the cops in New Mexico.

Having raised enough money to pay Ed the Disappearer, the former meth cook was smuggled through Canada and into southern Alaska.

Given the new name of Mr Driscoll, Jesse was last seen driving just 40 miles to the small town of Haines, to live in peace.

Surely a more satisfying ending than being sent to jail?

El Camino is streaming on Netflix now.