10 Potential TV Castings We’re SO Glad Didn’t Happen
2. Matthew Broderick As Walter White (Breaking Bad)
A lot of the entries here offer interesting alternate universe castings. LeBlanc in Modern Family, Scott in The Office and Azaria in Friends would all have still been enjoyable, even if the casting we actually got was far superior.
With Matthew Broderick as Walter White though? We can consider this a serious bullet dodged.
It’s true that both Broderick and eventual castee Bryan Cranston made their names in comedy, with Broderick best known for things like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Cable Guy and Inspector Gadget. He did have some serious experience, but it was severely limited.
The Stepford Wives is one of the few standouts of his career, and The Cable Guy was originally much darker until he and Jim Carrey combined to give it a comedy tilt. Cranston meanwhile was best known for Malcolm In The Middle, though he had featured in the likes of Saving Private Ryan previously.
The decision to go with a comedy actor did lull audiences in and made Walter’s transition to Heisenberg all the more compelling. Broderick though didn’t want to play a bad guy (neither did John Cusack, also scouted) so Cranston stepped in and delivered an irreplaceable masterclass.