Did Gus Fring really intended to replace Walter White with Gale when he asked Gale if he could cook Walter's formula Or was this Walter's fear?

Question

Gus Fring initially hired Walter for 3 months for his service, which he later extended it to 1 year. Of course, he wanted Gale to learn Walter's formula and replicate it eventually since Walter was more like a consultant and he had cancer.

But the way I see it was Gus wanted to have a back up chemist, since the cartels wanted Gus' chemist to cook for them, and this demand coincided with Walter killing his two dealers. Walter then panicked when Gale started to ask too much details about his methods and had him killed and he then wanted Gus killed. I mean Gus did tell Walter that Jesse should have let him deal with the dealers regarding the murder of the boy, So maybe Gus was not without reason.

Gus may have wanted to have a back up chemist since the last time he took a cook there, he was shot in the head. So hence he wanted Gale to learn the Walter's method ASAP.

After Gale's death, Gus went to Jesse, since Jesse had been with Walter from the start and he was right to assume that Jesse would be able to replicate Walter's product. He took Jesse to the Cartels, and Cartel being a prick tried to keep Jesse and Gus had to kill them all to keep Jesse and for revenge.

Did Gus really wanted to kill Walter and have him replaced with Gale or was this all Walter's fear?

Answer 1

We know that Gus did intend to replace Walter at some stage, as he knew Walter was going to die. Gus already had a dislike of Jessie and, if it wasn't for Walter, Gus would have killed Jessie; though he also knew Walter wouldn't work for him if he did it whilst he was alive.

It's likely that Jessie wouldn't have worked for Gus once Walt had died, or Gus would have killed Jessie soon after, so having Walt train Gale was a way of having the product live long after the creator had gone, and would ensure Gus was the number one producer and distributor for a long time to come.

I don't think Walt was scared of being killed particularly. He was already living with the fact of his mortality day-to-day, it was more an ego thing for him. He knew he was the best at what he was doing, and that Heisenberg had a reputation as a result of his work, so he wanted to keep that going to enjoy the power he had whilst he could.

Answer 2

In the scene where Gus comes to Gale's apartment and asks if he can take over / cook Walter's formula, and then pressures him to agree that just "one more cook" would suffice to master the remaining details, it's pretty clear he intends to kill Walt as soon as Gale can take over. He also makes a point to state that Walt is "dying of cancer" and makes it sound inevitable to Gale in that conversation.

Answer 3

To me, the matter is simple. Gus found out about Walt's cancer at the end of season 2. Roughly 8 weeks after that -- time period in which Gus hired Gale and set up the lab --, in episode 301, Gus made the "three-months offer" to Walt. Thus, from the beginning, it was clear that all Gus wanted was for Gale to learn Walt's formula. Obviously, Gus figured: He'll die soon anyway, so he wouldn't be able to cook for very much longer, and at least this way he'll spend his remaining time with his family -- and 3 million in his pocket. Now, Walt completely fucked Gus' plan over, when he forced Gale to leave (a major plot hole, in my opinion -- how could Walt be so dumb?). Now, Gus was stuck with Walt. This led to a lot of very bad consequences throughout season 3 and until the finale.