Dean Norris Wanted Hank to Be Killed Off On "Breaking Bad"

Because of pilot season.

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Complex Original

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It's hard to imagine what the first half of Breaking Bad's final season would have been like if everyone's favorite DEA agent Hank Schrader had been killed off but apparently actor Dean Norris, who portrays him, asked creator Vince Gilligan to do just that.

"When they [AMC] originally picked up the 16 [episodes] I thought, 'Great, I can do a pilot, do the 16 and then be free to do a show,'" Norris explained to Canada's National Post of season five. "And then at some point fucking whoever decided they were going to split it into two eights so it cut me off from doing a pilot — and I had a pilot I wanted to do...I called [series creator] Vince [Gilligan] and I said, 'Hey man, maybe Hank should die in the first eight. Wouldn’t that be a great ending?'"

In the end, of course, Gilligan said no - and anyone who's seen the mid-season finale of the series will know exactly why. "He said no in his nice Southern way: 'I need you, what else am I going to write about in the last eight?'" Norris continued. "So I said, 'Oh, fucking right,' and really I couldn’t force him to do it because I have a contract I’d have to get out of but I  asked him very seriously to kill me...it was either do eight episodes or do 24 and I’ve got five kids, man."

Well, at least we know the second half of season five will be Hank-centric, now!

RELATED: The 25 Best TV Shows of 2012

[via National Post]

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