Aaron Paul’s Return To His ‘Breaking Bad’ Role On ‘Better Call Saul’ Prompted A Flurry Of Memes

(This post contains spoilers for the Better Call Saul episode, “Breaking Bad.”)

Even though Breaking Bad fans were expecting a Jesse/Walt/Saul Goodman reunion on the final season of Better Call Saul, it was still a wonderful (almost) surprise when the dysfunctional duo showed up on the latest episode of the hit AMC series. And it was also a good reminder of just how long it has been since we first met Walt and Jesse nearly 15 (!) years ago.

— Breaking Bad (@BreakingBad) August 2, 2022

Obviously aging exists, but the show decided not to try out The Irishman-style of de-aging the iconic characters. Better Call Saul writer and director Thomas Schnauz told Variety that “it is what it is” when it comes to bridging the gap between Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad’s timeline crossovers. “We don’t do a ton of de-aging on the show,” Schnauz explained. “There’s a little bit of stuff on the guys’ faces to take a few lines out here and there, but other than that, Aaron is not going to look like an 18-year-old kid or however old Jesse was during this time period.”

Despite the fact that they did minimal de-aging, it’s still a little jarring to see the actors jumping right back into a scene from over a decade ago. Fans on Twitter had fun with a 40-something actor getting back in the mindset of his 20-something character.

— rain ♡ adri (@batb1ood) August 2, 2022

Better Call Saul showing us a close up of 40-some yr old Aaron Paul as 20-something Jesse Pinkman like pic.twitter.com/cI9SRKKxiU

— Hae Ji Cho (@HaeJi_Cho) August 2, 2022

A 42 year old Aaron Paul playing a 19 year old Jesse Pinkman in the latest episode of Better Call Saul pic.twitter.com/9PY04AI1XQ

— Brad Goddard (@brad_goddard) August 2, 2022

better call saul fans when 40+ year old aaron paul doesn’t look like 20 year old aaron paul in his better call saul flashback (they would’ve also complained if he didn’t make a cameo in the episode) pic.twitter.com/fgJPz87acJ

— cleo (@cleoofffilm) August 2, 2022

Aaron Paul tonight pic.twitter.com/kYaVScTHre

— Nariman (@slytherinus) August 2, 2022

Aaron Paul getting the call in another 15 years to play a 25 year old Jesse Pinkman pic.twitter.com/j8YkdKrrKV

— Jessperado (@jessekellestine) August 2, 2022

the funny part about aaron paul in better call saul is not that he looks 10+ years older, but that his voice dropped for a second time

— cleo (@cleoofffilm) August 2, 2022