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Vince Gilligan, the acclaimed writer/director of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, has been long teasing what was coming next. And now, three years after the end of Better Call Saul, we finally have a first look at just what he’s been cooking up. Enter: Pluribus, Gilligan’s latest entry into the sci-fi genre.
While the teaser we’ve got is short, and doesn’t really show us anything beyond the fact the show will include donuts, is named Pluribus (stylised as PLUR1BUS in the trailer), we do also know that it’s coming to Apple TV+ later this year, and that it’s already been renewed for a second season.
The show will premiere its first two episodes on November 7, 2025 on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping every Friday onward until December 26, signalling a 9 episode season.
Admittedly, it’s not much to go off from the teaser alone, but Gilligan and co. have actually been hinting at the series for the past several years. So, let’s start by watching the teaser trailer, and then dive into what it all means.
What is ‘Pluribus’?
Okay—so you’ve seen someone who looks like a janitor licking a bunch of donuts. Now what? Well, let’s dive into what we know about this show.
Firstly, it’ll star Rhea Seehorn, who previously played Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul, as our main character, likely named Carol, who Apple describes as “the most miserable person on Earth” who “must save the world from happiness”. It’ll be based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and will also star Karolina Wydra as “an optimistic woman named Ana”.
The show has been teased with the tagline “happiness is contagious”, and we also know that Pluribus will be ‘mild’ science fiction, but that it’ll also apparently be ‘blended, grounded genre drama’. What does this mean?
At this point who knows, but given the references to a contagion I think it’s fair to say that we’ll probably see an outbreak of some kind in episode one which will spread toxic positivity across the United States. That’s a strange premise, and a total stab in the dark, but it’s backed up by an IMBd credit for ‘patient’, interviews Gillian has given before, as well as the fact the key art for the show (at the top of this article) is clearly a smiley face in a petri dish.
“The world changes very abruptly in the first episode, and then it is quite different. It’s the modern world — the world we live in — but it changes very abruptly. And the consequences that that reaps hopefully provide drama for many, many episodes after that,” Gilligan told Variety.
It’s also possible that there’ll be some cultish shenanigans going on. At 2025’s San Diego Comic-Con, Apple hired a big yellow donut van to advertise the show, with a blackboard on the side with a phone number and the text “call us, Carol”. Con-goers that called the included number were sent a voice message saying:
“Hi Carol. We’re so glad you called. We can’t wait for you to join us. Dial 0 and we’ll get back to you via text message.”
Texting 0 saw a text message delivered: “Please know your life is your own, Carol. You have agency…You must have so many questions for us! Understand, we only want to make you happy.”
Now—take this with a big old grain of salt, but there have also been rumours that the show (via its pre-production moniker Wycaro 339) could involve aliens that are looking to disrupt life on Earth (perhaps via a happiness contagion), and that have invaded our society. That also gives a bit of new meaning to the setting of New Mexico, which houses Roswell aka one of the most infamous ‘alien crash sites’ in US history. Also, I’m just spitballing here, but the way Wycaro 339 is written sure looks how planets are categorised to me.
It’s also worth noting that some of Gilligan’s earliest work was as a writer on the X-Files, and that the man himself has hinted that this show felt like a “return to his roots”. The truth is out there, folks.
There’s one more thing I want to touch on: the meaning of the word ‘pluribus’. It’s latin for ‘many’, and is pretty famously found on the great seal of the United States in the form of ‘E pluribus unum’, or ‘out of many, one’.
This use is used to reference the fact that the United States is, in fact, one whole made up of many parts (or states), but within the context of Gilligan’s new show it could instead refer to the singularity of our miserable main character being the odd-woman out in a world infected by happiness. After all, why else would the word ‘pluribus’ be stylised as ‘PLUR1BUS’, with a 1 signalling individuality within the ‘many’.
Confirmed Cast Members
Despite the fact so much of the show is still veiled in mystery, we do have a few casting credits via IMBd. There isn’t a ton to go on here, but as mentioned above the existence of a ‘patient’ character does lend credence to the idea that Pluribus could follow a contagion of some kind.
Here’s everyone we know will be in Pluribus:
- Rhea Seehorn (as Carol)
- Karolina Wydra (as Ana)
- Jennifer Bravo (as Neighbour)
- McKenzie Scott (as Patient)
- Joanne Marie (as Citizen)
- Miriam Shor
- Sambra Schutte
- Carlos-Manuel Vesga
When Can I Watch ‘Pluribus’?
The show will premiere its first two episodes on November 7, 2025 on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping every Friday onward until December 26, signalling a 9 episode season.
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