Welcome Mike Ehrmantraut Back To AMC, Folks

If you're a Breaking Bad fan who somehow wasn't already looking forward to spinoff-prequel-thing Better Call Saul, well I've got news for you: Jonathan Banks is heading to Better Call Saul in a reprise (...preprise?) of his Breaking Bad character. Huzzah!

Banks, who earned mass critical admiration for his role as hitman/enforcer/fixer Mike Ehrmantraut on Breaking Bad, has signed on to the prequel. It's a nice get for the show considering how beloved Mike was to fans the first time around, and it'll be interesting for the show to be able to explore who Mike was before we met him the first time around. Here's what Banks said in a 2011 interview with Vulture regarding the character:

In the second episode of season four, when I sit there and I rub the blood off, there is a tortured soul there. There is something that has gone terribly, terribly wrong at some point. You can’t go as far to say that Mike is good; he’s certainly not. But would he do a good turn for another human being? You suspect that he might.

And in a 2012 interview with HitFix:

I just loved Mike. I loved playing Mike. He was just a great, great character. Vince gave me such a gift. I keep using that word, but I really do feel that way. When you get a character like that, and you get to bring whatever years and ability that I have to fill it out, it was just a wonderful experience.

[...] I love Mike's code, and beneath that, I think, and I brought to this, that Mike had lost his soul a long time ago, and he knows it. I tried to never dumb Mike down. And Mike will never forgive himself for the things he had done or the things that he does.

The jury's still out as to whether Better Call Saul will live up to the legend that now is Breaking Bad — it seems unlikely given the heights Breaking rose to, but you never know — but hey, if Mike's there, we'll have a solid reason for tuning in.