r/betterCallSaul • u/Venkman007 • 12h ago
Mike prequel series
Obviously, this is something that would never happen. But I'd be curious as to who you would cast as a younger Mike Ehrmantraut, maybe during his cop days in Philly?
I honestly have no idea who I would cast, but would love to see your suggestions!
18
u/JimmyScoops 11h ago
Maybe Jon Bernthal. He has the ears and the demeanor.
10
u/PikaChooChee 11h ago
Ooh, this is a good call. Bernthal's energy is typically more manic but I think he could control it.
4
1
u/BoldlyGettingThere 10h ago
I’m against it for the same reason I think he was a bad choice for Johnny Boy Soprano in The Many Saints of Newark. Johnny Boy is shown in flashbacks in the show to be violent, sure, but a bit pudgy and just kinda a normal guy. Bernthal plays him with a self-assuredness and menace that doesn’t track with what Tony remembers about him.
I know the things Mike is capable of require some kind of backstory of him being some kind of John Rambo/Macguyver hybrid, but casting someone like Bernthal would just push it past the believability that Mike was, at some point, just a beat cop.
Honestly, I think Mike’s backstory requires such an insane leap from learning all those skills, while also just being some normal guy, that the universe is the better for not showing or drawing attention to it too much. What we’re told already stretches disbelief; actually seeing it would just point it out.
14
u/mikeventure76 11h ago
Mike is possibly my favorite fictional character ever in any work, and I just don’t have any interest in seeing him portrayed by any other actor
4
2
u/TransportationTrick9 10h ago edited 3h ago
The actor certainly redeemed himself after being universally hated as Victor Maitland's bodyguard
2
u/Just-Curious1901 7h ago
You talking Beverly Hills Cop?
•
u/TransportationTrick9 3h ago
Yeah, I hated that guy just as much as Axel did
•
u/Just-Curious1901 1h ago
Just watched it again this past year. Was cool seeing him in it. And getting humiliated.
•
u/over_scored_liar 2h ago
Watching Mike do things especially early on in the season was so damn good. He looked so badass with just his actions and few words and no background music.
I felt like I could trust him with my life if it came to it and I'd be safe.
•
u/mikeventure76 2h ago
Yeah nothing will ever top BB season 3 Mike for me. When he was still just a stone cold, ruthless, man of few words killer who was clearly smarter than everybody else and almost operating as a force of nature in the show’s universe (even tho little tiny ounces of his deeper characterization do shine through, such as him clearly being sympathetic toward Walter when they were about to clip him in Full Measure; it’s still under a veneer of mystery). We didn’t even know his name til like the end of the season.
The way he’s expanded on in the final season of BB , and especially BCS, is bittersweet to me.
It’s great character work and allows Jonathan Banks to give some all timer performances beyond the range of the stoic, merciless killer. But at the same time it removes all the mystique that initially made Mike such a special character
5
u/YawfleStares 11h ago
To me, this is one of those cases where the actor and the character are inseparable. I can't imagine anyone else but Jonathan Banks in the role, even a younger version.
5
u/supergooduser 11h ago
Someone pitched a great idea of a limited series of Mike sitting on the bench before he gets shot, and just replays the events that lead to him being a crooked cop and "where did it all go wrong"
Kind of like Serpico where he tries to do the right thing and it steadily works against him and in the end winds up costing him Matty. And the weird pledge Mike has about being a bad cop, but becoming a good criminal.
2
3
u/Nolear 11h ago
It could be a movie I think. I don't think it fits a series
2
u/oneshadeoff 10h ago
Yeah I don't need to see a crime drama series but a movie about his downfall into corruption could be interesting
5
2
u/HugeSuccess 11h ago
I’ve thought about this before too, I’d love a Wire or Homicide-style series with Young Mike in Philly.
Would also provide an opportunity to make a clean reset with the rest of the universe/cast (maybe Banks would narrate as a framing device).
2
1
u/SoMuchEdgeImOnACliff 10h ago
I think it'd be best as a movie like El Camino. We know so much about him but a movie would work with the timeline we didn't see with him as a cop.
1
u/ThorfinnTheDude 10h ago
"Philly City Blues" could be a great mini-series or a film, no doubt. Would be really cool if they could parallel Mike's police rise with Gus in South America, jumping back and forth between the very different lifestyles.
1
1
u/cortisolbath 7h ago
depends but ideally you’d need a few actors - one for bad cop Mike, one for Vietnam Mike and maybe a kid for flashbacks to childhood…
1
u/Little_Elia 6h ago
pop, when I grow up I want to be like you and catch all the corrupt baddies!
is that so?
•
•
•
54
u/North_Art2104 12h ago
Jonathan Banks wearing a wig to make him appear in his 30s.