“Breaking Bad” chemistry teacher Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) might not have even teamed up if not for Walter’s brother-in-law, Drug Enforcement Agency agent Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), who takes Hank on a ride-along drug bust. However, series creator Vince Gilligan almost did not include Hank in the pilot.
This might surprise some fans, given that the dramatic irony of Hank hunting down an elusive drug kingpin who turns out to be the brother-in-law he underestimated stands out as one of the major driving forces of the entire five-season story.
Gilligan told Yahoo! Entertainment that he feared he was being “too pat” about Walter having a brother-in-law who happened to be a DEA agent. Gilligan felt that the presence of Walter’s pregnant wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn), and his son, Walter Jr. (R.J. Mitte), was enough to establish his family dynamic, and perhaps he could have seen a drug bust on the news without any involvement of a family member in law enforcement. Ultimately, Hank was written into the pilot to contrast his personality and reputation.
“If there’s this extra element, if there was a real man’s man in this story, a character right from the first act who is everything that Walt appears not to be, then that might make for some interesting storytelling,” Gilligan said. “I think that’s really where the idea for Hank came from, that Walt is cerebral and a bit soft, or at least that’s what we think of him.”
How Hank Schrader helped shape the legacy of the Breaking Bad universe
Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) contemplates his life on “Breaking Bad” – AMC
We first meet Hank Schrader in the “Breaking Bad” pilot as a brash, snarky DEA agent at his brother-in-law’s 50th birthday party, boasting about his recent drug bust. Vince Gilligan acknowledged that Hank’s playful emasculation of Walter plays a role in the protagonist’s moral degradation and imperial ambitions. “You know, Walt’s gotta be doing this, even if it’s on an unconscious level, to stick it to his brother-in-law,” Gilligan told Yahoo! Entertainment. “There’s gotta be some antipathy there somewhere.”
Walter White’s supposed modus operandi in deciding to manufacture and sell crystal meth is to support his family in the wake of his lung cancer diagnosis. He justifies his criminal descent in the name of family, which Hank would eventually call him out on in the Season 5 episode, “Blood Money.” The contrast between Walter and Hank’s ambitions in the series showcases why the former’s further descent into his “Heisenberg” persona to satisfy his ego effectively paints him as an undeniably evil, selfish man. In contrast, the latter’s journey to stick to his principles in bringing Heisenberg to justice is cemented as he accepts his unfortunate demise in the universally acclaimed episode “Ozymandias.”
Norris would reprise his role as Hank Schrader in the prequel series, “Better Call Saul,” appearing alongside Steven Michael Quezada as Hank’s DEA partner, Steven Gomez, in two episodes of the fifth season: “The Guy for This” and “Namaste.”
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