Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks have been joined by the first brand new cast member to the Breaking Bad universe in prequel series Better Call Saul. Michael McKean will be joining the show, Deadline reported yesterday, and he’ll be playing Dr. Thurber, an attorney who has “an unusual affliction.” We don’t know what that means, but we do know that McKean starred in a handful of X-Files episodes co-scripted by Vince Gilligan, who is the creator of Breaking Bad and co-creator (with Peter Gould) of Better Call Saul. McKean played a government operative named Morris Fletcher who ends up switching bodies with Fox Mulder in that show’s only comedic two-parter, so maybe Dr. Thurber’s strange affliction will be that he’s actually David Duchovny in disguise. Considering that both Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul starred in X-Files episodes before being cast in Breaking Bad, maybe Gilligan will reach out to Tony Shalhoub, the man who starred in his first script for that show, to fill some other role in Better Call Saul. Michael McKean, of course, has starred in 50 million cool things beyond just The X-Files and Laverne & Shirley, but what you best know him for is probably This Is Spinal Tap, so just start quoting that movie in comments like you know you want to.
