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" Breaking Bad creator and showrunner Vince Gilligan has spoken about the difficulties of ending the series. Gilligan explained that the ending - which comes after five seasons on air - was only &amp;quot;decided very late in the game&amp;quot;.  He told Radio Times: &amp;quot;We decided very late in the game. We had about eight or ten months to work on these final eight episodes.  &amp;quot;I have six excellent writers, and the seven of us together worked many hundreds of thousands of man-hours to figure out this ending. &amp;quot;We didn&amp;#039;t really figure out the very ending until about a month or a couple of weeks before we wrote it.  &amp;quot;There was a great deal of tension in the constant anxiety that we wouldn&amp;#039;t end this correctly. And then we figured out the ending.&amp;quot; The showrunner described the final run of episodes as &amp;quot;one wild ride&amp;quot;, adding that fans should &amp;quot;hold on tight&amp;quot;.  Gilligan also spoke about the inspiration behind Walter White, played by Bryan Cranston. &amp;quot;I was about to turn 40 years old and was starting to feel a midlife crisis coming on. That was the point where this idea came to me and I think the character is not based on any real person out there,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;If anything, I was probably thinking of myself. I&amp;#039;ve never been a teacher but I&amp;#039;ve got several former teachers who have been very important in my life.  &amp;quot;My mum is a retired schoolteacher and my girlfriend is a retired schoolteacher. That was probably an inspiration. I was thinking in terms of all of those things, but mostly in terms of a guy who&amp;#039;s having a really bad midlife crisis.&amp;quot; The final eight episodes of Breaking Bad air on August 11 at 9/8c on AMC in the US, and on Netflix in the UK and Ireland from August 12. Watch a promo for the final episodes of Breaking Bad below:      "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/breaking-bad/news/a505360/breaking-bad-ending-decided-very-late-in-the-game-says-showrunner/>