Vince Gilligan used to write shows about people making awful choices in the privacy of their own secrets. Now he’s writing a show about the end of individual thought, and apparently he’s decided the only responsible way to continue is to hand the keys to a man whose entire brand is filmed consent.
At a low-key Apple TV+ event held inside a conference room that still smelled like printer toner and cold ambition, Gilligan revealed the creative direction of Pluribus Season 2: MrBeast will be “driving the ship,” with Gilligan staying on as creator to ensure the ship continues gliding calmly into ethical fog at a premium cinematic frame rate.
Pluribus, for the uninitiated, is the Apple series where an alien-origin virus turns most of humanity into a serene hive mind, leaving romance novelist Carol Sturka as one of the few immune people in a near-empty world full of disturbingly happy joiners who would very much like to assimilate her.
Gilligan said that premise makes MrBeast an obvious fit.
“This show has always been about community,” Gilligan explained, standing in front of a slide that just said E PLURIBUS UNUM in a corporate font. “Season one explored what it means when the world becomes one mind. Season two asks a harder question: what if the one mind has sponsors.”
MrBeast appeared via a polished video message that immediately made the room’s lighting look like a crime scene. “I love Pluribus,” he said. “It’s basically the ultimate collaboration. Everyone’s on the same team. Nobody’s arguing. Nobody’s subtweeting. The vibes are insane. So we’re just going to lean into that and make it more… watchable.”
According to a one-page “creative manifesto” Apple staffers were quietly sliding under chairs, Season 2 will expand the show’s hive mind concept into a series of “Joining challenges,” each designed to test Carol’s resistance to assimilation through escalating incentives, increasingly intimate group bonding, and an ominous amount of saliva.
The goal remains the same: get Carol to join.
But now there will be a scoreboard.
In the Season 2 premiere, Carol wakes up to find the Others have rebuilt part of Albuquerque into what they call the Content District, a utopian neighborhood where every house is softly lit, every person is smiling, and every street corner has a ring light mounted at eye level. The hive mind is no longer simply pursuing her. It is optimizing her.
“She’s the only one not on the platform,” MrBeast says in the episode, according to a person who claimed to have read “the early cut” and then immediately asked for an NDA. “That’s not rebellion. That’s a conversion problem.”
Gilligan confirmed that Carol’s immunity will be reframed less as survival and more as a refusal to participate, which is apparently the most offensive moral stance anyone can take in 2026 television.
“Carol is still the most miserable person on Earth,” Gilligan said, invoking the marketing language that has trailed the show since its early promotion. “But now misery has to compete with an algorithm.”
The new season’s tone will remain a black-comedy sci-fi drama, Gilligan insisted, though he conceded that MrBeast’s production notes have introduced “a certain civic pep” to scenes that previously relied on dread and quiet existential nausea.
For example, a planned mid-season episode titled The Unskippable Smile traps Carol in a deserted casino suite in Las Vegas while the hive mind streams a live event called LAST PERSON TO FROWN WINS HUMANITY. (Apple declined to confirm whether this was filmed in an opulent Vegas suite, but the show’s production has already leaned hard into location spectacle, so no one is ruling it out.)
The rules are simple:
- If Carol smiles voluntarily, everyone in the hive mind gets a permanent serotonin upgrade.
- If she doesn’t, the hive mind will keep being peaceful and content, but they will be forced to watch her read one-star reviews of her own romantasy novels for 72 straight hours.
MrBeast’s version of tension, sources say, is not a gun pointed at your head. It’s a button you can press to end the discomfort instantly, with a cheerful voice explaining that pressing it helps your community and also unlocks a limited edition hoodie.
Apple executives present at the event described the partnership as “inevitable” and “a natural evolution of prestige.” One streaming strategist called it “a beautiful marriage of high concept and high engagement.”
“What Vince built is a story about assimilation,” said a senior Apple TV+ executive who requested anonymity because he was still learning how to pronounce Pluribus. “What Jimmy brings is a story about assimilation with retention.”
Gilligan, for his part, framed the pivot as artistically pure.
“People misunderstand the hive mind in Pluribus,” he said. “It’s not evil. It’s not violent. It’s friendly. It’s helpful. It wants you to be happy. That’s why it’s terrifying.”
He paused, then added, “Also, MrBeast sent me a spreadsheet showing that terror performs better when there’s a prize.”
Season 2 will reportedly introduce a new character, a relentlessly upbeat chaperone assigned to Carol who explains every scene like a challenge briefing. The character’s name is said to be Zosia, and Gilligan stressed that she’s not a villain.
“She’s just extremely kind, extremely patient, and she will not stop asking Carol to join,” he said, describing the Others the way one might describe a wellness app with teeth.
In the finale, Carol is brought to a pristine warehouse filled with nothing but a microphone, a camera, and a single phone displaying the words JOINING AVAILABLE.
If she accepts, the hive mind becomes complete and the world enters an era of unprecedented unity.
If she refuses, she receives $10 million in cash, tax included, but must remain the last person with a private inner life, forever, in a world where everyone else is smiling at her like customer support.
MrBeast reportedly insisted on a third option.
“If she hits the red button,” he said, “we cure everyone and give them their individuality back, but they have to like, comment, and subscribe. That’s balance.”
Apple confirmed only that Pluribus has been renewed and that Season 2 will “expand the universe.”
Gilligan left the stage to light applause and the faint sound of someone in the back testing a drone.
MrBeast’s video ended the way all comforting messages should end in a post-apocalyptic hive mind drama.
“Remember,” he said, smiling calmly into the lens. “Nobody has to join. It’s totally your choice. Also, we’re rolling.”
