Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) is the key figure across both timelines shown in Breaking Bad, but just how old is he in each? Jimmy was first introduced under his pseudonym Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad season 2, episode 8, "Better Call Saul". After becoming heavily involved in Walt & Jesse's journey, the character was given a somewhat uncertain ending, as Ed Galbraith made him disappear at the end of the series.
Better Call Saul has since picked up his story both after and before Breaking Bad, showing both the time when Jimmy worked in a Cinnabon as Gene, and also as a younger version of himself, chronicling how the well-meaning lawyer becomes the far more cynical Saul Goodman. Jimmy's arc and transformation has been every bit as engrossing as that of Walter White before him, and it's not over yet with another season of the show to come. But with the Breaking Bad universe now encoming several timelines, and the same actor, Odenkirk, playing Jimmy/Saul/Gene in each, then what's his age in all of them?
As revealed by his driver's license in Better Call Saul season 5 episode "JMM", when Jimmy and Kim are getting married, he was born on November 12, 1960. That means that in Better Call Saul season 1, Jimmy McGill is 41 years old, with the events of those episodes covering May-July 2002. Jimmy is still 41 in season 2, while season 3 spans him turning 42. Better Call Saul season 4 takes place over the course of a full year, so he's 43 by the end of it, and that's how old he still was in Better Call Saul seasons 5 and 6, which ended in June 2004 before leaping into his Gene timeline. Here's how old Jimmy McGill is at every point in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, including at the end of Better Call Saul season 6.
How Old Jimmy Is When Breaking Bad Starts
Better Call Saul starts a few years away from Breaking Bad, the events of which start in 2008. When Saul Goodman is first introduced in season 2 of Breaking Bad, then, he's not long turned 48 years old, with Better Call Saul season 1 starting in 2002 when he's 41. By the time he's packing his bags to leave for Omaha at the end of Breaking Bad, Saul is 49 years old, with those events happening in mid-to-late 2010. The flash-forwards to Gene that mark the beginning of each Better Call Saul season take place in 2010, so he was still 49 years old at that point – his comeuppance happened quicker than audiences anticipated.
How Old Jimmy Is In Better Call Saul
Meanwhile, in the Better Call Saul season 2 episode "Inflatable", there's a flashback to a young Jimmy in 1973; at this point, he would've been 12-13 years old, though producer Thomas Schnauz told Saul in Breaking Bad, Odenkirk was 47, almost the same age as his character. But when first playing Jimmy, aged 41, in Better Call Saul, Odenkirk was 53 by then, over a decade older than Jimmy and just slightly older than Gene – not that it's impacted his sublime performance any.
Jimmy's Age At The End Of Gene's Timeline
The final episode of Better Call Saul was season 6, episode 12, "Saul Gone." It aired on August 15th, 2022, bringing Odenkirk's Breaking Bad story to a close. Better Call Saul started in 2002 for season 1, and by season 6, the show was depicting Jimmy McGill's activities up until 2010 (two years after he first met Walter White, who also appeared in Better Call Saul). Jimmy is 49 at the end of Better Call Saul season 6. However, since the show depicts multiple time frames, this is something of a flash-forward that fills in Breaking Bad 's gaps after the Breaking Bad timeline concludes, so his Breaking Bad and Gene timelines naturally overlap. The other major time period in Better Call Saul season 6 is 2004, four years prior when Jimmy is 44. The 2004 timeline wraps up in the penultimate episode, however. In the Better Call Saul finale, 8 years after becoming Saul as seen in Breaking Bad, Jimmy McGill is sentenced to 86 years in federal prison. Saul Goodman will more than likely die behind bars, as his sentence doesn't expire until 2096, 136 years after he was born.
