How's this for a touching story: Last Sunday's Breaking Bad premiere ended with a dedication to teen Kevin Cordasco, who passed away in Spring after a six-year long battle with neuroblastoma. He was only 16 when he died, but a major Breaking Bad fan—in a story that appeared in The Hollywood Reporter, his father explained that Kevin and his friends would watch it religiously every week. "He and his friends watched it obsessively and ate pizza in his bedroom...there was something about the Walter White character...the way he took control of his illness, and his life, that really resonated with Kevin."
When Kevin's condition began worsening, Kevin's godmother reached out to a friend of hers, Kim Byrd, who works as an agent at Innovative Artists to see if a meeting could be set up between Kevin and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, as well as the show's cast. Soon enough, word got to Bryan Cranston, and plans were set immediately: "I literally got a call the next day from Bryan’s assistant,” Byrd commented.
Kevin's father added: “Bryan and his wife sat with Kevin for hours at the hospital. And then Vince came to our house, along with some of the cast. They even invited Kevin to the writers room. He was beyond thrilled."
Here's where the story gets even more touching: According to Gilligan on the Breaking Bad insiders podcast, he offered Kevin the opportunity to hear the end of Breaking Bad directly from him, so long as he promised not to tell anyone. Kevin refused, though—instead, he said, he wanted to find out the ending at the same time as everyone else, when it airs in September. Sadly, however, Kevin passed away on March 11th, around the same time Gilligan was wrapping up the final episodes.
"We are forever grateful and will be watching every Sunday with Kevin's friends and our popcorn," Kevin's father added to THR. "It's what our son would want."
Feels. So many feels.
[via Uproxx]
