The beauty of long-form storytelling is the fact that viewers get to live with the characters over multiple episodes and seasons. These protagonists become like friends who enter homes and hearts and continue to remain evergreen even after the shows reach a culmination. Bryan Cranston’s Walter White in the blockbuster series Breaking Bad is a character who is not easily forgotten.
Over 5 seasons, Cranston’s meth-making chemistry teacher’s volatile journey affected fans across the world. A deeper connection also results in viewers getting more and more invested in their favorite characters through various theories about their personalities. Coincidentally, the Oscar nominee’s protagonist in Breaking Bad was compared to another character in a popular sitcom that he was a part of.
Are Bryan Cranston’s Walter White And Frankie Muniz’s Malcolm The Same People?
There’s nothing quite like ingenious fan conjectures that make an entertaining connection between two completely unrelated characters. A weird but well-thought-out Reddit theory takes Bryan Cranston’s Walter White from Breaking Bad and Frankie Muniz’s Malcolm from Malcolm in the Middle and proceeds to explain why the meth-crazy chemistry teacher could actually be the grown-up avatar of the studious young teenager.
The premise first compares both characters’ personalities and attempts to find a commonality there. The protagonists both possess distinctive traits of intelligence, manipulation, and selfishness, along with an affinity for chemistry. Keeping in mind that Malcolm also has a violent streak with an episode showing him using his laboratory skills to create an explosion, the chances of him turning out to be Cranston’s Walter White in the future are quite plausible.
Possibly the coolest comparison that supports this theory is the fact that Cranston was actually a key member of the popular sitcom, having played Malcolm’s father Hal in the show. With the assumption that the precocious teenager would grow up resembling his father, we get Malcolm literally turning in Walter White!
Why Are Bryan Cranston’s Pants Always Off?
While a creative hypothesis tried to imagine Bryan Cranston’s Walter White and Frankie Muniz’s Malcolm as the same person, hawk-eyed viewers noticed a similarity between 2 of Cranston’s characters. Before his impressive turn in Breaking Bad, the Trumbo star became a household name as Hal, Malcolm’s father in the sitcom Malcolm in the Middle.
A few years ago, Cranston took part in an entertaining social experiment conducted by GQ. As part of the activity, the actor created various accounts on social media in an effort to answer some burning questions that viewers had about him and his characters on sites like X, Instagram, Reddit, and Quora.
Cranston known for his witty replies, gave a smart and funny answer to one viewer who wondered why his characters in Malcolm in the Middle and Breaking Bad always had their pants off. To quote the actor,
“You know, I gave up on that long time ago and I’m just giving America what it wants to see, apparently.”
Jokes aside, Cranston also went on to give some invaluable insight into how he developed his iconic character Walter White in Breaking Bad, which included the actor emulating his father’s physical gait and voice to play an older man.
