- Vince Gilligan reunites with his Better Call Saul star Rhea Seehorn for Pluribus, a sci-fi drama that diverges from his previous works.
- The series creator and executive producer previews the “surprising twists and turns” in the debut season, premiering Nov. 7 on Apple TV+.
- Gilligan also teases potential Easter eggs that call back to Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
Rhea Seehorn navigates a different kind of Albuquerque on Pluribus, Vince Gilligan’s ambitious new Apple TV+ sci-fi drama set to crash land on Earth in November.
The creator of Breaking Bad and prequel spinoff Better Call Saul reteams with his Saul star for the genre-bending series about the most miserable person on Earth’s pursuit to save humanity from happiness. In the drama, Seehorn trades formidable attorney Kim Wexler for the deadened Carol Sturka, a best-selling author of historical romance novels — or, as she affectionately calls her work, “mindless crap” — in the midst of a successful book tour to promote her latest book when a mysterious phenomena sweeps across the quiet New Mexico city: an apocalyptic (or perhaps not so apocalyptic, depending on who you ask) virus that has indoctrinated the world into optimism and content.
Carol is immune to whatever has “afflicted” the world, navigating this Twilight Zone-esque altered reality with equal parts confusion and rage. (The latter emotion causes some problems, to say the least.) She sets out to find answers regarding the phenomena, though “there’s going to be complications arising from that,” Gilligan tells Entertainment Weekly.
Apple TV+
“The drama of the show is that the world’s most miserable person is desperately trying to save the planet from happiness,” the series creator and executive producer says. “There’s a surprising amount of drama that we’re mining from that.” But there’s a “lot of humor to it” too, Gilligan says, describing Seehorn’s character as a “reluctant hero.” “She doesn’t really want to be tasked with saving the world, but she more or less feels like it’s her duty.”
As for the circumstances surrounding Carol’s immunity, Gilligan doesn’t really have an answer for that at the moment. Or maybe ever. “That’s a question that several people have asked me starting back in the writers’ room,” he says. “I don’t want to give too much away, but maybe we’ll find an answer to that, maybe we won’t. A better way for me to put it is that it never really occurred to me as a question. I just figured there’s always gotta be a one-in-a-billion person. And it’s Carol. As to the science of it, I don’t know. Maybe we’ll have an answer, maybe we won’t.”
Pluribus has been a long time coming, the idea first alchemizing in Gilligan’s head maybe a decade ago while he was working on Better Call Saul, the acclaimed Breaking Bad prequel about how Bob Odenkirk’s crooked attorney Saul Goodman broke bad and came to represent the likes of chemistry-teacher-turned-drug-lord Walter White (Bryan Cranston). “During our lunch breaks, I would take long walks around the neighborhood near our offices. My mind would wander and I got interested in the idea of a world in which everyone was nice,” Gilligan says. “There was no way you could insult them. There was no way you could hurt their feelings. But they would do anything and everything for you.
“I didn’t know what it meant,” he says of the idea, quipping, “I’m still not sure exactly what it means.”
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It’s a fairly novel idea, kindness, considering the climate we currently find ourselves in. “There’s no denying that we live in a country that is very fractured,” Gilligan says. “What interests me about this show and the possibilities for it is that people, I hope, can watch it and say, ‘What would the world be like if everybody got along?’ There’s probably a bit of wish fulfillment in the idea of this show. I don’t know that I set out to create that, but I see the real benefit in it now.”
Gilligan crafted the show with Seehorn in mind for the lead role, calling the actress a “revelation.” “Initially I was thinking in terms of a male protagonist because that’s how I think being a guy,” he admits. “But then I thought, well, what about Rhea? She’s so good. She’s so funny when she wants to be, but can also break your heart when she wants to.”
Starring alongside Seehorn in the nine-episode debut season are Karolina Wydra and Carlos Manuel Vesga, plus guest stars Miriam Shor and Samba Schutte. “Complications will ensue,” Gilligan says of what unfolds. “It’s a show that takes a couple of surprising twists and turns.”
Perhaps the most tantalizing tease of all? The show, though vastly disparate from Gilligan’s previous works, just might feature callbacks to those iconic worlds beyond Seehorn’s casting and the locale. “There might be a couple if you keep your eyes and ears peeled,” Gilligan teases of potential Easter eggs. “Fans of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, if they pay close attention, they might come upon an Easter egg or two.”
Pluribus premieres Nov. 7 on Apple TV+ with two episodes, followed by weekly drops every Friday through Dec. 26.
