Vince Gilligan Shares He Knows How His Sci-Fi Series Might Finish... For Now.
Vince Gilligan never anticipated that the Apple TV+ show would turn into a cultural phenomenon. “The viewers have been incredible,” he remarks. “I was surprised by the show being as passionately debated as it is, and it makes me deliriously happy.”
Now that Season 1 of the hit program wrapping up—and the next chapter greenlit and underway—Gilligan and his team opened up about the fan response and whether it will impact the future direction of Pluribus.
Regarding the Incredible Fan Response
It would be easy to get sidetracked by the rampant praise and online debates about Pluribus. He is striving to avoid both.
“It's like being an endless supply of your favorite dessert and being tickled to death,” he describes. “It's the greatest thing, but I hear about it through word of mouth, and that's on purpose. I have never looked myself up on the internet, nor do I ever intend to. Not because I don't care. It's a deep trap I know I would fall into and then I'd be living in squalor from Home Depot and I'd rarely emerge from my living room.”
In spite of Gilligan’s best intentions, there’s no way to avoid the overwhelmingly positive response to the series. The only approach for the writers is to acknowledge it humbly and try not to let it dictate the story of the show.
“It is not our goal to tailor anything,” says writer and executive producer Alison Tatlock. “The narrative we craft is not changed by what people are saying.”
“We prefer to keep our noses to the grindstone,” Gilligan concludes.
The Big Question: Does the showrunner See the Ending of Pluribus?
So if Gilligan and his team are not listening by fan response, does that mean they already know how Pluribus will reach its endpoint? Essentially yes… sort of.
“We've developed some potential directions about the ultimate destination,” Gilligan says. “but we are always ready to abandon a decent plan for a more brilliant plan. This approach has served us in excellent shape on Better Call Saul and on Breaking Bad even before that. We scrap ideas when we conceive of something superior and I expect we'll continue doing that.”
On the other hand, if all else fails, executive producer Gordon Smith has a rather amusing idea to use as a backup.
“My recurring proposal is that everything takes place within a snow globe, and that we'll zoom out in the finale and we're in there,” Smith quips, “but nobody's taking me up on that.”
Alternatively, one could always use the legendary finales?
“I want Carol to open her eyes next to Bob Newhart,” he jokes.
Pluribus is streaming now on Apple TV.
