Pluribus is the upcoming sci-fi series from Vince Gilligan, which will air exclusively on Apple TV+ this week. Gilligan, best known for his work on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, is returning to his sci-fi roots with Pluribus, which also happens to star Better Call Saul alum, Rhea Seehorn, who played Kim Wexler.
In a recent interview with Alan Sepinwall for Rolling Stone, it was revealed that Pluribus has a budget of $15 million per episode. For context, this is about five times more than the average cost of a Breaking Bad episode, which certainly spared no expense when it needed to. This shouldn’t be too surprising, considering that Apple is basically made out of money and has been known to invest large sums into producing truly high-quality series and even renewing the ones that don’t perform as well commercially. I’m looking at you, Invasion.
It’s also worth noting that when Apple tapped Gilligan for Pluribus, two seasons of the show were greenlit right out the gate. That, combined with the now revealed episode budget, is a testament to just how much confidence the company has in Gilligan and his new show. From what we’ve heard so far, impressions of early screeners seem to be very positive, and I’m personally excited to see what Pluribus has to offer.
After a series of very cryptic teaser videos, Pluribus finally got a couple of more concrete trailers that gave us a better idea of what the show’s about. It’s nothing we don’t already know: humanity has been infected with a happiness virus, except for Carol, played by Seehorn. Apple’s elevator pitch for the show is that the most miserable person on Earth has been tasked with saving the world from happiness.
Pluribus is set to air on Apple TV+ on Nov. 7.
