This Dropped Storyline Would Have Changed Walt's Business In Breaking Bad

"Breaking Bad" was a carefully constructed series, following what seemed to be a natural narrative from beginning to end. The show focused on Walter White, a seemingly average high school chemistry teacher who is suddenly diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. He then decides to team up with former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) and start cooking methamphetamine so that he can leave his family with money after he dies. Each season saw Walt building his criminal empire more and more before everything came to a conclusion in Season 5. 

However, even a show like "Breaking Bad," with all of its carefully planned storylines and sensible character arcs, had plot points that changed and shifted as the series went on. Then there were some storylines that were ultimately dropped, which ranged from having Walt end up in a South American prison to flashbacks that took place over a hundred years ago with an entirely different cast. Interestingly enough, there was one particular scrapped storyline that would have seen Walt change his criminal activities from cooking meth to something else entirely. 

During an interview in 2013 with Entertainment Weekly that discussed scrapped storylines during the run of "Breaking Bad," series creator Vince Gilligan, producer Peter Gould, and story editor Gennifer Hutchison elaborated on a story that would have seen Walter White opening a pharmacy. Apparently, this storyline would have involved Walt either selling bootleg pharmaceuticals or meth in certain types of capsules that had a special brand. Talking about why it was rejected, Hutchison explained that at the end of the day, "it was like, the show's about meth." She added that the blue meth is so "iconic," and that getting a prescription for pharmaceuticals is "not really hard."

While it makes sense that Gilligan and company would have wanted to try new things with Walt, Hutchison's reasoning does make sense. The Blue Sky meth that Walt and Jesse sell throughout the series became just as memorable as the characters themselves in the eyes of fans. Having Walt shift to something new might have risked alienating the fanbase. Still, it's hard not to wonder what "Breaking Bad" would have looked like if this or any of the other abandoned storylines had made it into the show.