Pluribus Season 2 is beginning to take shape, and Vince Gilligan has now revealed just how far along the next batch of episodes actually is.
Speaking backstage at the Primetime Emmys, where Gilligan won for Drama Series Writing, the Pluribus creator confirmed that the entire story for Season 2 has already been mapped out. The first two episodes have also been written, while the remaining scripts are in various stages of development.
“Season 2 is not technically all written,” Gilligan revealed. “We’ve broken it out, which is the hard part. In other words, the plot of all episodes [is figured out]. The first and second are written.”
“The rest of them are in various stages of being written, but we know what the whole season is,” he added. It's a promising update from when Gilligan last spoke about Season 2 back in February, but it still sounds like the series is far from returning.
Rhea Seehorn, who won Best Actress in a Drama Series for her performance as Carol, apparently hasn’t even been brought into the loop just yet. “I don’t have anything,” Seehorn said when asked about Season 2, confirming she has yet to see the scripts.
Gilligan did say that will change soon, although he noted that some members of the cast actually prefer not knowing everything that’s coming.
“We will share it soon with Rhea,” he said. “Sometimes the actors like Karolina and Samba, sometimes they don’t necessarily want to know. They kind of want to be surprised, which I kind of like that.”
Pluribus is a sci-fi drama in which the most miserable person on Earth must save the world from happiness. The series stars Rhea Seehorn (Better Caul Saul) as Carol Sturka, a cynical, bestselling fantasy romance author who is one of the few people immune to a mysterious alien virus that has turned nearly everyone on Earth into a collective hive mind.
The first season was lauded by critics and fans alike, receiving 18 Emmy nomationions and coming away with 6 wins, including Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (Rhea Seehorn) and Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series for “We Is Us” (VInce Gilligan). The season also scored an impressive 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising: "Genuinely original science-fiction fare from television veteran Vince Gilligan, Pluribus leads Rhea Seehorn through a brave new world with plentiful returns."
Season 2 has plenty to pick up following the first season’s explosive ending. The finale saw Carol demand that the collective provide her with an atomic bomb, giving her what amounts to a last-resort insurance policy against being forcibly converted. She then seemingly agreed to work with Manousos, telling him, “You win. We save the world.”
Exactly where Gilligan takes the story from there remains under wraps, but knowing the entire season has already been plotted suggests the creative team has a firm idea of where Carol’s story is headed next.