Vince Gilligan just received three Emmy nominations for producing, directing, and writing Pluribus. To date, the prolific showrunner has taken home four statuettes as a producer — Best Drama Series for Breaking Bad (2013 and 2014) and Best Short Form Series for Better Call Saul: Employee Training (2017 and 2020) — yet he’s never won an Emmy for directing or writing.
But that could all change this year.
Gilligan is the current front-runner in the Gold Derby odds to win Best Drama Directing and Best Drama Writing, both for his work on “We Is Us,” the pilot episode of the Apple TV hit.
Primetime Emmy Awards 2026
For directing, he has a 66% chance of prevailing over Noah Wyle for The Pitt (“12:00 P.M.”), Salli Richardson-Whitfield for The Gilded Age (“My Mind Is Made Up”), Saul Metzstein for Slow Horses (“Scars”), Richardson-Whitfield for Task (“Out Beyond Ideas of Wrongdoing and Rightdoing, There Is a River”), and Hanelle Culpepper for Paradise (“Exodus”).
Gilligan’s visual style in the Pluribus pilot fuses everyday monotony with immense dread, as misanthropic fantasy author Carol (Emmy nominee Rhea Seehorn) discovers she one of a few people immune to a worldwide happiness virus. He makes evocative use of New Mexico’s vast landscape — just as he did in Breaking Bad — to underscore Carol’s isolation as she struggles to adapt to her strange new reality.
Primetime Emmy Awards 2026
For writing, Gilligan has a commanding 75% shot of claiming victory opposite Valerie Chu for The Pitt (“12:00 P.M.”), Will Smith for Slow Horses (“Scars”), Peter Akerman and Debora Cahn for The Diplomat (“Amagansett”), Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman and R. Scott Gemmill for The Pitt (“1:00 P.M.”), and Brad Ingelsby for Task (“A Still Small Voice”).
Gilligan started out as a writer on The X-Files, so Pluribus brings him back to the sci-fi genre. Seehorn told Gold Derby that Gilligan drew inspiration from his love of The Twilight Zone, which makes sense considering how out-there Pluribus is. The high-concept premise puts a fresh spin on familiar apocalyptic themes of loneliness and survival, all of which are on display in the pilot episode.
Primetime Emmy Awards 2026
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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
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Your Friends and Neighbors
Gilligan’s third category is for Best Drama Series as a producer of Pluribus. All season long, The Pitt has led our odds in that category, so this is likely Gilligan’s weakest chance at a victory.
Currently, Season 2 of The Pitt has a 90% chance of winning, compared to 7% for Pluribus in second place. The other six nominees — The Diplomat, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Slow Horses, The Gilded Age, Paradise, and Your Friends & Neighbors — are just happy to be nominated.
Gilligan previously lost the directing category four times (for Breaking Bad‘s “Pilot,” “Face Off,” and “Felina,” and Better Call Saul‘s “Witness”) and the writing Emmy twice (for The X-Files‘ “Memento Mori,” and Breaking Bad‘s “Felina”).
See if Gilligan can break his directing and writing curse when the 2026 Emmys air Sept. 14 on NBC.
