Apple has ordered two seasons of the series for Apple TV, with the series premiering two episodes on November 7, 2025, for a nine-episode first season.[5] The title of the series refers to e pluribus unum, a Latin phrase meaning 'out of many, one'.[6]
Pluribus has received widespread acclaim from critics, who praised Gilligan's writing and direction, Seehorn's performance, and the series's originality, tone, and stylistic influences.
Premise
Set in Albuquerque, New Mexico,[7][8] the series follows author Carol Sturka,[9][10] who is one of only twelve people in the world immune to the effects of "the Joining", resulting from an extraterrestrial virus that had transformed the world's population into a peaceful and content hive mind (the "Others").[11][12][13]
Cast
Main
Rhea Seehorn as Carol Sturka, a fantasy romance author who survives the outbreak of an alien virus that renders nearly all of humanity into a relentlessly optimistic hive mind[10]
Karolina Wydra as Zosia, a member of the hive mind who acts as Carol's companion
Carlos Manuel Vesga as Manousos
Guest
Miriam Shor as Helen,[14] Carol's manager in public and romantic partner in private[15]
Samba Schutte as Koumba Diabaté,[14] one of the twelve people in the world who was not infected by the virus. He decides to live a hedonistic playboy lifestyle in its aftermath.
Peter Bergman as Davis Taffler, an individual in the U.S. government who speaks to Carol about her situation[14]
Max Reeves as Margaux, one of the women in Koumba's entourage
Anna Mhairi as Vesper, one of the women in Koumba's entourage
Olivia Rouyre as Genevieve, one of the women in Koumba's entourage
Esther Omegba as Jasmine, one of the women in Koumba's entourage
Imani Love as Cleo, one of the women in Koumba's entourage
Phuong Kubacki as Soleil, one of the women in Koumba's entourage
Menik Gooneratne as Laxmi, one of the immune individuals who is hostile to Carol
Darinka Arones as Kusimayu, one of the immune individuals
Astronomers detect a radio signal from space that spells out an RNA sequence. Over a year, researchers reproduce the sequence in a lab, but an outbreak occurs one night, causing those infected to act collectively, spreading the virus through saliva. Meanwhile, romance novelist Carol Sturka returns to Albuquerque after her latest book tour with her manager and partner Helen. During a night out, Carol notices everyone around her begin to suddenly convulse, including Helen, who collapses. Carol rushes Helen to a hospital, finding the city overrun with chaos and destruction along the way. Carol is alarmed to find everyone at the hospital is infected and knows her name; Helen soon dies from her injuries. Carol flees to her house, where she discovers a TV broadcast showing a man in the White House press room with a phone number on-screen. When she calls, the man explains that the virus originated from the extraterrestrial RNA signal and has transformed humanity into a permanently happy hive mind. He tells Carol that she and eleven others appear immune, but shares that the hive mind seeks to assimilate them.
While burying Helen, Carol is approached by Zosia, a member of the hive mind (the "Joined"), who explains that all infected humans share one consciousness, containing each other's memories—including Helen's—so any of them can speak for the whole. When Carol lashes out at her, Zosia convulses. After recovering, Zosia reveals that Carol's anger overwhelms the hive mind and that her outburst killed many. Carol demands to meet the five other immune English speakers, and Zosia arranges a meetup in Bilbao. One survivor, the hedonistic Koumba Diabaté, arrives aboard Air Force One, where the group assembles. Carol discovers the other survivors have accepted the new collective existence, despite her pleas to search for a cure. Zosia explains that the Joined are nonviolent, but admits that over 886 million people died during the initial "joining". Enraged, Carol triggers a second deadly global seizure, prompting the other survivors to abandon her. Koumba tells Carol he plans to travel to Las Vegas with Zosia as a sexual companion, but he requires Carol's permission. Carol protests but allows it before getting on her own commercial jet to return home. When she sees Zosia leaving with Koumba's group, she has a change of heart and rushes to stop their departing plane.
Vince Gilligan conceived the series's premise after becoming "weary of writing bad guys"[19] after a decade of working on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.[20] During production of Better Call Saul, he came up with the premise of a man that, after some cataclysmic event, everyone on Earth adored. He expanded on the idea, turning the lead to a female character that was written with Better Call Saul star Rhea Seehorn in mind,[15] and coming up with the idea of a hive mind. As he wanted the story as grounded as possible, Gilligan came up with the idea of the hive mind coming from a signal sent from space containing code for RNA that would transform humanity.[21][22] Gilligan took in many of the tropes of science fiction, with the anthology television series The Twilight Zone and the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers as inspiration for depicting the controlled humans.[23]
Gilligan told Seehorn that he was working on something aimed for her, and she immediately wanted to be part of the work even before seeing the initial drafts.[22] After Better Call Saul ended in August 2022, he pitched a new series that he would develop with Sony Pictures Television.[24] His pitch brought the first bidding war for one of his works,[22] with Apple TV winning the rights to the show in September 2022, giving it a two-season order. Gilligan was named to serve as showrunner and executive producer. Seehorn was cast as Carol Sturka, a discontented but successful romance novel author.[4][15] Gilligan crafted the character to be a "flawed good guy" who tries to save the world.[25]
Production
In October 2023, after writing for the first season was interrupted by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, Gilligan and his writers' room regrouped to finish the last two episodes. The strike also pushed back the plans to begin shooting, possibly into the winter, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[9] Filming began on the series in February 2024,[26] finishing in September 2024 after 7 months of production in Albuquerque under the working title of Wycaro339.[27] Each episode had a reported $15 million budget.[28] In March 2024, Karolina Wydra was cast in the series in the lead role of Zosia.[29]
The official series title of Pluribus, along with its planned release in November 2025, was announced in July 2025.[5]
Dave Porter is the composer for the series.[30] Denise Pizzini served as production designer.[31]
For exterior shots, Carol's cul-de-sac was temporarily constructed in West Mesa outside of Albuquerque, including Carol's home exteriors and interiors, six surrounding homes, a park, and roadways.[13][31]
Release
After Pluribus was announced, very few details of the show were released publicly, even with the series's full trailer released in late October 2025.[23][32]
An advance invitation-only screening of the series's first two episodes was held in New York City on October 10, 2025.[33] The series held its official premiere event at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles on November 4.[34]Entertainment Weekly released an exclusive preview of the series's first four minutes one day before the Apple TV premiere.[35]
Pluribus premiered its first two episodes on November 7, 2025, exclusively on Apple TV. A new episode is set to air every Friday through December 26.[5]
Marketing
Various teaser trailers for the series have included the phone number "(202) 808-3981", which when dialed plays the following message:[36][37]
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.
Subsequent text messages included alerts for teaser trailers and an invitation to the October 2025 advance screening event in New York City. The messages, which continued through the series premiere, referred to all recipients as "Carol".
Reception
Rhea Seehorn has received critical acclaim for her performance.
Pluribus has received widespread critical acclaim, with reviewers praising Seehorn's performance, Gilligan's writing and direction, and the series' originality, tone, and stylistic influences. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds a 100% approval rating based on 66 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Genuinely original science-fiction fare from television veteran Vince Gilligan, Pluribus leads Rhea Seehorn through a brave new world with plentiful returns."[38]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, gave the series a score of 86 out of 100 based on 35 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[39]
Nicholas Quah of Vulture called the series "an entrancing piece of television", praising Seehorn's "remarkable" performance, writing, "she makes it easy to comply with Pluribus's insistence on total presence as it meditates on something essential about humankind." He compared Gilligan's direction to his work on the Breaking Bad franchise for emphasizing sequences that "luxuriate in depicting process and atmosphere", describing the series' pace as "deliberate and meandering, both thrilling and confounding in its refusal to yield payoff, immediate or otherwise" and praising its "gorgeous" cinematography and production design.[40] Kaiya Shunyata of RogerEbert.com called Pluribus "one of this year’s most complicated and thrilling television series", describing the show as a "bewildering mix of science fiction and noir". She praised Seehorn's performance for "commanding" the screen, while describing the "push-and-pull" between she and co-star Wydra as "fascinating to watch".[41]
Linda Holmes of NPR felt Gilligan's "genius" to be in "the deft way he marbles brutality, humanity and humor into a single creation in which each element retains its punch, but the whole still makes sense". She praised the collaboration between Gilligan and the "extraordinary" Seehorn for tapping into the actress' comedic sensibilities, while also praising the series's "crushingly sad" depiction of existential loneliness, as well as its "philosophical frankness", which she found "more refreshing than didactic".[42] Ben Travers of IndieWire gave the show a B+, writing that the series "rewards acute attention and an engaged mind, which would be more than enough reason to recommend it even if it wasn’t also a sharply observed celebration of the human condition." He too praised the "steady and stunning" cinematography and the "colorful and clarifying" production design, but in contrast to Quah, felt that Gilligan's "devotion to process" as a director "throws off the pacing, which is already unsteady thanks to the general shapelessness of our protagonist’s overall journey". [43]
Several critics noted the series' stylistic influences and philosophical commentary. Sean T. Collins of Decider noted influences from several science fiction works in the series premiere, including Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Night of the Living Dead, and 28 Days Later, and while likening the series to "a big-budget reimagining" of 1960s TV series The Prisoner, calling the show "scary and unsettling".[44] James Poniewozik of The New York Times compared the series to several others, including The Leftovers, The Twilight Zone, The Last Man on Earth, and Gilligan's past work on The X-Files, while considering Pluribus to be "its own mystifying thing" and "a wildly fanciful series that feels unsettlingly real at its core." He praised Gilligan as "a master of disorientation" and called Seehorn's performance "enormous, in quality and quantity". He found parallels between the series' premise and "the modern lure of A.I., which promises to deliver progress and plenty for the low, low price of smooshing all human intelligence into one obsequious collective mind."[45] Josh Rosenberg of Esquire also interpreted Pluribus as an allegory for humanity's "bizarre acceptance" of artificial intelligence, writing, "for once, we’re watching a meaningful story about our connection to AI that isn’t solely about choosing whether to fall in love with it or kill it."[46]
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