"It's going to be a real good day in the writers' room," says
Breaking Bad executive producer Vince Gilligan, whose show just received a Best Drama Emmy nomination.
Season 3, which premieres in March, goes into production in August. So what can fans expect?
"We're going to touch on an interesting real-life religion that is taking hold down in Mexico these days," spills Gilligan. "It's the cult of Santa Muerte, which is Saint Death. It's a religious movement that worships the idea of death itself. We have a couple of characters who we meet in the midst of making a pilgrimage down to one of these saint's shrines. These are a couple of bad guys who are going to cause all kinds of problems for Walter White [Bryan Cranston] down the road."
Bryan, last year's Best Actor winner and a current nominee, is directing the season premiere
and has already begun plotting the New Mexico shoot. "It's bizarre and chilling," he reports. "The first image you see in the opening teaser will be the Santa Muerte deity. We reveal ways
those who are devotees show their respect and worship." Walter will also come to realize his culpability in the plane crash that ended last season "as well as his culpability in the failure of his marriage," says Bryan.
Gilligan says fans will also see a more grown-up Jesse Pinkman, who challenges his father-figure, Walter. "The first few episodes of the new season are unbelievably insane," says Aaron Paul (Jesse), who is celebrating his first Emmy nomination. And where was Bryan when he got the good news of his own nomination? "I was peeing at the time," kids the actor. "It was a straight
pure stream, no obstructions at all. Unfortunately I was still in bed."
As for the show's famous fans, Gilligan plans to work some of them in as guest stars. Bryan tells me those who have expressed interest include Philip Seymour Hoffman, Alec Baldwin, George Lopez and Terrence Howard. "Terence said, 'I'd love to come play with you in the desert,'"