A Breaking Bad Icon’s Fan-Favorite Villain Is Returning to Invincible

Well, Invincible fans, it looks like we haven’t seen the last of Powerplex—and unless you're tracking every social media whisper, you might've missed how this little casting saga played out. Let’s break it down: drama, Instagram slips, a bit of backtracking, and maybe even some contract haggling behind the scenes.

Wait, Is Aaron Paul Actually Coming Back?

Here’s where things got strange. Aaron Paul—yes, that Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad—originally voiced Powerplex on Invincible, and people loved (or at least, memorably hated) his take on the deeply angry supervillain. But a while back, Paul flat-out said he wouldn’t be reprising the role in Season 4. According to him, on the Kinda Funny Games podcast, getting inside Powerplex’s head was, well, legitimately draining. In his words:

'What it did to me, I didn’t like, and so I couldn’t continue.'

He even explained that voicing such a tortured character took a mental toll and made him uncomfortable—so that was supposed to be the end of that. Or so we thought.

The Instagram Plot Twist

Fast-forward to now, and suddenly there’s a new wrinkle: Paul recently shared a cryptic black-and-white shot to his Instagram stories, casually displaying the first page of an Invincible script. His caption? 'Some light reading,' as if he wasn't about to set the fandom on fire. Of course, fans noticed immediately and started buzzing—if you missed it, don’t feel bad, this was buried in the ephemeral stories universe.

Even funnier, Paul hasn't gone out of his way to explain what's changed since his mental-exhaustion comments. One fan even joked that maybe it was just a negotiation tactic: 'That mentally exhausted thing really was just "give me more money, and I’ll keep doing" negotiating talk lol.'

Powerplex’s (Messy) Arc So Far

• Debut: Powerplex first showed up in Season 3, Episode 6—'All I Can Say Is I’m Sorry.' The show wasted no time getting us inside his head: he’s Scott Duvall, stuck in simmering grief and obsession ever since Omni-Man and Invincible wrecked Chicago in Season 1’s finale, an event that killed his sister and niece.
• Motivation: He’s not a moustache-twirling type; he’s traumatized, mentally spiraling, and fixated on making Mark Grayson pay for his family’s death—plus, he wants justice (and probably some catharsis) for the city’s victims.
• Downward Spiral: In a classic tragic-supervillain move, Powerplex ends up luring Invincible into a fight that goes so badly he accidentally kills his own wife and son. Blame gets redirected to Mark; his vendetta only deepens.
• Redemption (Kind of): He gets pulled into the chaos during the war with the evil Invincible variants in the following episode, fights on the 'right' side for a hot minute, and actually kills one of those twisted versions. But when the dust settles, he goes straight back to trying to end Mark—only for Mark and Kid Omni-Man to stop him before the cops haul him away.

So, What’s the Deal?

Officially, there’s still no direct statement about why Paul might be coming back after saying the role was too much. Money? Clout? Could he actually have just changed his mind for creative reasons? Maybe we’ll hear more when Season 4 lands, or maybe it’ll remain one of those things only PR people know for sure. For now, chalk this one up as a classic 'Hollywood says no, then Instagram says yes' situation.

Either way, brace yourself: Powerplex is apparently back, and with Aaron Paul voicing him, the drama is basically guaranteed.