Old Joe, the junkyard owner played by Larry Hankin in Breaking Bad, returns in a new trailer for Netflix’s upcoming movie sequel El Camino. The movie picks up after the end of Breaking Bad, with Jesse Pinkman on the run and wanted for his long list of crimes, as well as being a person of interest in Walter White’s machine gun massacre of the white supremacist gang that was holding Jesse prisoner.
Aside from Aaron Paul as Jesse, El Camino will have a host of returning characters from the series, including Jesse’s old pals Badger and Skinny Pete. In the very first trailer for the movie, Skinny Pete was seen being interrogated by the police about Jesse’s whereabouts, and insisted he had no idea where Jesse was. Badger’s return was confirmed soon after, and he also appeared in the full-length trailer for El Camino.
The newest El Camino promo sees the return of another familiar face: Old Joe. The character runs a used car lot and specializes in taking car of vehicles that criminals want destroyed and disposed of, which means that Jesse and Walt end up crossing paths with him on multiple occasions. The promo shows Joe watching coverage of Jesse on the news, and then getting a phone call that can only be from one person.
Joe played a pivotal role in Breaking Bad, since it was his knowledge of the law that saved Walt and Jesse from being caught by Hank Schrader in season 3. The two were trapped inside their old meth-cooking RV when Hank arrived on the scene and began trying to break in. However, Joe informed Hank that he was trespassing on private property and would need a warrant to enter the RV, since it was technically a private domicile, and therefore “protected by the Fourth Amendment from unlawful search and seizure.” When Hank pointed to the tape-covered bullet holes in the door as being all the probable cause that was needed, Joe reminded him that probably cause needs to be “readily apparent,” which meant that the presence of the bullet holes was negated by the duct tape covering them.
Hank was ultimately drawn away from the junkyard, giving Joe time to destroy the RV, but that wasn’t the only time that Joe helped Jesse and Walt out. In season 5 he returned to help them plan a caper involving a van and an extremely powerful magnet, which they used to wipe evidence from the hard drive of a laptop that had been collected as evidence by the police. Needless to say, Joe has proven himself to be one of the most useful people that Jesse could possibly contact when he’s in trouble - which he definitely is in El Camino.
Of course, while Joe being in the movie is good for Jesse, it could be very bad for the El Camino that he’s driving. After all, Joe does specialize in crushing cars.
More: Breaking Bad Movie Theory: How Walter White Can Return In El Camino
