While it may not be on the same scale as other such shows as Prime Video’s Fallout, Vince Gilligan didn’t hold back when launching his apocalyptic new series, Pluribus. The Apple TV series marks the first sci-fi effort from Gilligan since The X-Files, and his first since closing out the Breaking Bad universe. It also marks his first collaboration with the streamer after having primarily worked with AMC and Netflix.
Taking his atypically grounded, character-driven approach to his concept, Pluribus sees the world rocked by a mysterious virus that turns everyone in the world into docile figures. The sole outlier appears to be that of Carol Sturka, a historical romance author content on continuing her life of misery and return the global population to the way things were, even as the affected try and find a way to have her join them.
In anticipation of the show’s premiere, ScreenRant‘s Graeme Guttmann spoke with Vince Gilligan to get an in-depth look at the creation of Pluribus. While exploring the show’s first two episodes, in which audiences are shown the beginning of the apocalypse in a one-take sequence showing its stakes, Gilligan began by humorously finding that they were lucky “Apple gave us a lot of money and a lot of time“.
The Emmy winner, who also directed the first two episodes, went on to express that he’s “really proud” of the way the Pluribus scene turned out, even though it “almost killed us” as they explored six city blocks of the happiness apocalypse in downtown Albuquerque. Gilligan’s goal with the scene was to “show the process of the world reaching this [destructive end]” right from the jump for audiences:
I wanted to really sell it visually and figure out how we make this really cinematic. I thought it would take hundreds and hundreds of shots [with] different things going on. It turned out to be insanely difficult, but I’m really proud of it. We had a dress rehearsal night where we literally rehearsed the shot, and then we shot it for real.
Gilligan concluded by revealing that the apocalyptic scene took roughly 12 hours to film over “six or seven” takes, ultimately landing on the best one being the final one shot. Describing his hiring process as being finding “people who are smarter than you“, he praised his team for their skills in putting the one-shot sequence together, given he was able to tell them “what I want to do” before going off and “having a hot dog [while] they all put it together [and] make it happen“.
One such person that Gilligan brought onboard is his First Assistant Director, Angie Meyer, with whom he previously worked on six episodes of Better Call Saul. Upon being told Gilligan wanted to go for the one-take sequence, Meyer recalls going through a range of emotions, thinking to herself, “Are you kidding me?“, as well as “You’re nuts” and “You’re going to see how hard this is“.
Interestingly, Pluribus isn’t the first time one of Gilligan’s shows has utilized the one-take format for one of its scenes. The Emmy winner himself played with the style in Gus Fring’s iconic Breaking Bad death, in which he combined two separate shots with CGI and Greg Nicotero’s makeup effects team to capture the reveal of Giancarlo Esposito’s character having half of his face blown off.
Additionally, Better Call Saul experimented with the oner in season 2 for the four-minute-and-22-second opening scene showing a delivery truck going through customs inspection at the Mexico-US border. However, unlike his Breaking Bad scene, the prequel series’ sequence was not one Gilligan had direct involvement in, as he didn’t write the episode, nor direct it, with Thomas Schnauz penning it and Larysa Kondracki helming.
Unlike his prior shows, however, Pluribus‘ genre trappings invite more experimental filmmaking as he captures a look at a very unique apocalypse. While Gilligan has confirmed having filmed in other locations internationally, the fact he put so much effort into showcasing the extent of the destruction in Albuquerque could point to the virus not being as happy as it initially aims to be, and set up further deadly consequences for future seasons of the Apple TV series.
The first two episodes of Pluribus premiere on Apple TV on November 7, followed by new episodes every Friday.
- Release Date
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November 6, 2025
- Network
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Apple TV+
- Writers
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Ariel Levine
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Carlos Manuel Vesga
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