A complete timeline of Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston's friendship, from 'Breaking Bad' costars to alcohol brand collaborators

• Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston met as costars on AMC's "Breaking Bad."

• In the years since the show ended, the two actors have remained close and gushed about each other.

• They launched a Mezcal line in 2019 and reprised their "BB" roles for a 2019 Netflix sequel movie.

Paul and Cranston met on the set of AMC's "Breaking Bad," starring as an unlikely drug manufacturing duo.

The series premiered on January 20, 2008, with Paul starring as Jesse Pinkman (a drug user and dealer) and Cranston portraying Walter White (a high school chemistry teacher who turns to meth-making to ensure his family's financial stability after learning that he has cancer).

Before Paul and Cranston landed their award-winning roles, there were some other well-known actors who were considered.

Paul told People TV that he "tested against three guys" for his role and "Gossip Girl" star Penn Badgley was one of the actors who was participating in screen tests at the same time as him.

Meanwhile, "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan wanted Cranston to play Walter, but executives at AMC were more interested in "Ferris Bueller" star Matthew Broderick, who turned down the role.

Cranston repeatedly pranked Paul into thinking his character was being killed off the show.

A writers' strike in 2007 and 2008 caused showrunner Vince Gilligan to consider killing off Jesse during the show's first season.

The character ended up surviving the show's entire run, but Paul told The Hollywood Reporter that "through the next season, season and a half," Cranston would mess with him and lead him to think that Jesse was getting axed.

Paul said that anytime he picked up a script, he thought, "This is the time."

"He would say, 'Hey, did you read the next script?'" Paul recalled. "And I'd go, 'Nah, did you get it?' And he's like, 'Oh.' And he just would give me this big hug."

Paul said Cranston would continue lying by saying, "'Hey man, you know, it had to end sometime, but at least you go out, like, guns blazing,' or something like that."

"He was very susceptible and sweet and he was only mid-20s then," Cranston explained during an appearance on "Late Night With Seth Meyers" in May 2019.  "I used to say to him, 'Hey man, it's been great. It's really been great and you're gonna use this time to go on to other things.'"

Then he'd make Paul believe his character was being killed off and "he just bought it," Cranston said.

Over the course of the show's six seasons, the two stars won a total of seven Emmys for their acting.

Paul won three Emmys for his supporting role in the drama series in 2010, 2012, and 2014. Cranston won four trophies for his lead role in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2014.

"Breaking Bad" also earned a SAG Award for best television drama series in 2013, much to the delight of the two stars.

That year, Cranston also won a trophy for his lead role on the show, while Paul was nominated for his supporting part.

Cranston got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in July 2013, and Paul was on hand to deliver a moving speech about his costar.

"The moment I met Bryan, I instantly fell in love with the man," Paul said. "I mean, how could you not? He's charming, he's brilliant, and he's a beautiful human being inside and out who is constantly running around in his underwear making people laugh."

The "Westworld" actor continued: "'Breaking Bad' would not be the same without this man. Let's be honest, television would not be the same without this man. But I'm here to tell you all that I, personally, would not be the same without this man."

"I couldn't be more proud of the man," he added on Instagram. "Thanks for teaching me so much my friend."

The final episode of "Breaking Bad" aired on September 29, 2013, but it wasn't the last time fans would see Paul and Cranston on-screen together.

During the episode, Walter freed Jesse from the compound where the white supremacists were keeping him and forcing him to make meth. Jesse was able to drive away, but Walter died after getting a wound from a stray bullet.

In 2014, "Breaking Bad" won a Golden Globe for best drama TV series, in addition to Cranston's win for best performance by an actor in a drama TV series.

That year, Paul was also nominated for a Golden Globe for best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a series, miniseries, or motion picture made for television.

Paul called Cranston his "dear friend and mentor" in 2014.

Congratulations to my dear friend and mentor of mine Bryan Cranston on his brand new Tony Award," Paul wrote on Instagram in June 2014, referring to his costar winning the award for best leading actor in a play for "All the Way." "So happy for you brother."

For Cranston's 60th birthday in March 2020, the actor parodied MTV's "My Super Sweet 16" for "Jimmy Kimmel Live" and was joined by Paul.

The skit was called "Bryan Cranston's Super Sweet 60," and Paul jokingly crashed the party dressed in the same outfit as Cranston.

Paul thanked his costar for his "wise words" and friendship in a heartfelt post shared in March 2016.

"Bryan my beautiful friend...thank you for your wise words and thank you for your friendship," Paul wrote on Instagram. "I have learned so much from you my friend. Hugs and kisses all over that beautiful face of yours."

In July 2019, Paul and Cranston revealed that they were launching a Mezcal line called Dos Hombres.

It wasn't quite the reunion that fans were hoping for, since many were hoping they'd reprise their "Breaking Bad" roles for some sort of project.

"Three years ago we sat in a sushi bar in New York. Talking about life and what we could possibly do down the road together. We had the time of our lives while shooting 'Breaking Bad' and truly built a very special bond," the two actors wrote on Instagram.

They went on to say that they agreed to create a "real, artisanal Mezcal made by hand in Mexico." Cranston and Paul also explained that the name refers to "two guys on a quest."

Their alcohol went on to win an award at the 2020 New York International Spirits Competition.

In August 2019, Paul marked his 40th birthday with a lavish 10-day celebration that included Cranston.

Paul and his friends and family spent more than a week at Ani Private Resorts Dominican Republic.

In an Instagram post, Paul called it "the best birthday trip of my life" and said: "Never have I felt more taken care of in my life."

He also said that he "had my phone locked away in my room for the entire trip and instead of my phone I had two Dos Hombres Mezcal Pina Colada's glued to my hands at all times. It was delightful."

A "Breaking Bad" sequel movie called "El Camino" was released on Netflix in October 2019, featuring the return of Paul as Jesse and a jaw-dropping cameo from Cranston.

The movie was intended to provide closure for devoted fans who wondered what happened to Jesse after driving off into the sunset during the "Breaking Bad" finale.

"El Camino" featured plenty of callbacks to the series and the return of lots of familiar faces. Cranston appeared near the end of the movie during a flashback that took place during season two, episode nine.

The flashback was filmed in January 2019 when Cranston had a day off from his starring role in Broadway's "Network." Gilligan told USA Today that the actor was only in New Mexico for 36 hours. They also took extreme measures to prevent Cranston's cover from being blown, like using a private jet to transport him and staying at a low-key Airbnb.

Cranston praised Paul's performance in the film, saying: "Aaron is SO damn good in it!"

In a joint cover story for Esquire, released in January 2022, the actors spoke about their alcohol brand and their friendship.

"I instantly fell in love with this man. He's impossible not to love," Paul said, adding that Cranston "became one of my closest friends — my mentor — very early on."

"I will say, when I met him he was in his 20s. And now he's in his 40s and it's changed. He's a husband and a father now," Cranston said, creating Paul as "the brains" of the Dos Hombres brand.

"He started it all. It was his idea," Cranston said. "He knows more about business than I do. Someone has to be the cover girl, and that's me."

During an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in April 2022, Paul said that he asked Cranston to be the godfather of his second child.

Paul and his wife, Lauren Paul (née Parsekian), welcomed a baby boy named Ryden Caspian in 2022, four years after their daughter Story Annabelle was born.

"I asked Bryan on his birthday if he would be our baby's godfather," Paul told Jimmy Fallon.

"He said no," the actor joked. "He's very busy."

On a serious note, Paul said: "He's very excited, very honored. I love the man to death. He's one of my best friends in the world, so it was just a no-brainer."

The costars attended an unveiling of bronze statues of their "Breaking Bad" characters in Albuquerque, New Mexico in late July 2022.

The statues, sculpted by artist Trevor Grove, were unveiled at the Albuquerque Convention Center on July 29, 2022.

Cranston and Paul were joined at the event by "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan, costar Dean Norris, plus "Better Call Saul" cocreator Peter Gould and actors Rhea Seehorn, Michael Mando, and Patrick Fabian.

Gillian said that the statues remind him of "two of the finest actors America has ever produced."

"I see them in character as two larger-than-life tragic figures, cautionary tales, world-famous ones at that," he said of Cranston and Paul.

Cranston and Paul reprised their "Breaking Bad" roles for the final season of the spin-off series "Better Call Saul," starring Bob Odenkirk.

The actors appeared in two episodes released in August 2022 as part of the last season of the hit AMC series.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Paul said that reprising his role was "kinda like reconnecting with a very familiar friend."

"I love Pinkman," he said. "He will always have a special place inside of me, but I can confidently say that ['Better Call Saul]' was the last time we're going to see Pinkman. So it was a nice farewell."

Cranston and Paul reprised their "Breaking Bad" roles again, this time for a commercial that aired during the 2023 Super Bowl.

The ad was written and directed by "Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan and packed with references to the hit show.

In the commercial, Walt and Jesse cooked up a batch of PopCorners, a brand of air-fried chips, in their signature trailer.

Then, they went to "Breaking Bad" character Tuco Salamanca (played again by Raymond Cruz) to distribute the chips.

Cranston told Entertainment Tonight that he and Paul are "very, very protective of the show and the characters," but they liked the pitch for the PopCorners commercial.

"We reviewed the scenes that we were emulating from the series and tweaked the dialogue just a little to make sure that the positioning was right, the dialogue was right," Cranston said. "And we use the real RV that we used from the show."

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