The Latin phrase “e pluribus unum” means “out of many, one.” In the first footage from Pluribus, the new series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, a donut-licking woman methodically samples not one out of many but an entire box of Sandy Pony Donuts (an actual Maryland-based donut shop with locations in Delaware and Virginia). The camera then pans to a handwritten note signed with a smiley face: “Help yourself!”
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Apple TV+ released the teaser and announced that Pluribus premieres November 7, hard-launching a marketing campaign that includes a cryptic teaser poster (with a smiley face and the tagline “happiness is contagious”) and a donut truck parked outside San Diego Comic-Con. “We don’t mean any harm, Comic-Con. We only want to make you happy,” the show’s official social media account posted on Instagram.
Gilligan and star Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul) dropped by the donut truck to hand out smiley face donuts with smiley-yellow napkins scribbled with a message: “Call us Carol,” and the phone number 202-808-3981. Calling that number returns the following message: “Hi Carol. We’re so glad you called. We can’t wait for you to join us. Dial zero and we’ll get back to you via text message.” Text the number, and you’ll receive this text: “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. We’ll be in touch soon.”
Seehorn’s Carol can be seen contacting the happy-makers at “PLUR1BUS” in the first look below, but which offers little in the way of answers. Per the logline, Pluribus follows “the most miserable person on Earth, who must save the world from happiness.”
Gilligan’s followup to Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul gestated under the working title Wycaro, with the Emmy winner cryptically teasing of the new series: “The world changes very abruptly in the first episode, and then it is quite different. And the consequences that that reaps hopefully provide drama for many, many episodes after that.”
In 2022, Gilligan teased that the then-untitled sci-fi series “could not be more different than Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.” Pluribus has been likened to The X-Files and The Twilight Zone and has been described as a “blended, grounded genre drama” infusing drama with humor while “focusing on people and exploring the human condition in an unexpected, surprising way.”
“There’s no crime, and no methamphetamine,” Gilligan has said of Pluribus which, like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, filmed and takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The series premieres November 7 on Apple TV+.
