The 'Breaking Bad' Creator Reveals He Knows How The Apple TV+ Show Will End... At the Moment.
Vince Gilligan could not have predicted that the Apple TV+ show would become a breakout success. “God bless the fans,” Gilligan says. “It was unexpected the show being as passionately debated as it is, and it makes me thrilled beyond words.”
Now that Season 1 of the acclaimed series coming to an end—and a second season greenlit and underway—the creative team opened up about the viewer reception and whether it will impact the future direction of Pluribus.
About the Tremendous Viewer Reception
It would be easy to get swayed by the rampant praise and online debates about Pluribus. The creator is doing his best to ignore the noise.
“The experience is akin to constantly eating hot fudge sundaes and being tickled to death,” he describes. “It's amazing, but I hear about it anecdotally, and that's by design. Never in my life Googled myself, nor do I ever plan to. It's not a lack of interest. It's a rabbit hole I know I would disappear down and then I'd be pooping in a five gallon bucket from the hardware store and I'd be stuck in my living room.”
Regardless of trying to stay away, there’s no way to avoid the overwhelmingly positive response to the series. The most practical strategy is to accept it graciously and try not to let it influence the direction of the show.
“It is not our goal to adjust our writing,” says co-executive producer Alison Tatlock. “The plot we develop is not impacted by audience chatter.”
“Better to keep our heads down and working,” he chimes in.
A Pressing Query: Does the showrunner See the Conclusion of Pluribus?
Considering the creative staff are not listening by fan response, does that mean they have already decided how Pluribus will reach its endpoint? In short yes… with some caveats.
“We've developed some compelling concepts 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 well on Better Call Saul and on Breaking Bad even before that. We change course when we find a more perfect path and I expect we'll continue doing that.”
Then again, if plans fall through, director and writer Gordon Smith has a pretty funny idea to fall back on.
“My recurring proposal is that everything takes place within a snow globe, and that we'll reveal the snow globe and we're in there,” he says humorously, “but no one is buying it.”
Of course, why not reference the iconic TV endings?
“I'd love for Carol to open her eyes next to Bob Newhart,” he jokes.
Pluribus is currently available on Apple TV.
