Vince Gilligan’s New Series PLURIBUS Shares Gross First Teaser, Image, Release Date, and Synopsis

Vince Gilligan is on what the kids would call a heater. Most creators would kill to have an iconic smash hit series like Breaking Bad on their resume. Yet he followed that up with Better Call Saul, a prequel series that somehow, against all odds, might have been even better. But now he’s leaving the (fictional) crystal meth game behind, even if he’s staying in Albuquerque. This time he’s cooking up something entirely new for Apple TV. The streamer teased the first look at Gilligan’s mysterious next show with a yellow petri dish sporting a smile with the ominous note “happiness is contagious.”

It then delivered on that promise with a gross release date promo for what we now know is a series called Pluribus. It features a woman in pink scrubs licking office donuts.

Nope, don’t like that.

What is going on here? The show doesn’t take place in Gilligan’s Breaking Bad universe even though it’s set in the same place, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Deadline had previously called it a “fun, mild sci-fi series” akin to E.T. that takes place in in our modern world, but with “a tweak on it, bending reality and focusing on people and exploring the human condition in an unexpected, surprising way.” Now Apple TV has provided a synopsis that sounds way more sinister. It says, “Pluribus is a genre-bending original in which the most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness.”

That sounds like the series could deal with toxic positivity. (Yes please!) That could explain the name, too. Pluribus means “much” or “many” in Latin, but the trailer has a stylized spelling with the number “1” replacing the letter “i.” The United States motto “E pluribus unum” means “out of many, one.” Maybe in this case the worry is many will be made into one. That is unless Better Call Saul and Pluribus star Rhea Seehorn’s main character can save everybody from “happiness.”

We have a little bit more time to theorize. The show debuts with its first two episodes (of nine) on November 7.

Apple TV

Saving people from joy might sound like the work of an antihero. But we’ll seemingly be able to fully root for a Gilligan main character this time around. The first official image from the show features Seehorn’s unhappy, burdened hero looking very worried.

Apple TV

The show also stars Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s  Karolina Wydra and Carlos-Manuel Vesga (The Hijacking of Flight 601). Guest stars include Miriam Shor (American Fiction) and Samba Schutte (Our Flag Means Death). 

Apple TV has already committed to two seasons. If Pluribus is good we expect more than that. Happiness is contagious, after all. Well, that is unless one person can stop the spread.

Hopefully she starts by stopping people from licking donuts.

This post originally published July 23, 2025.

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