A teaser poster for the new Vince Gilligan show is finally here, so let’s all lose our collective shit together and give it the insane deep dive it deserves.
On July 22, 2025 at exactly 3:00pm, it arrived. After years of rumors and speculation Apple TV dropped a teaser poster confirming the most anticipated new television series in at least two years. And, Gilli-Geeks, it’s friggen glorious.
At the time this post published (9PM EST) it had already been seen 1.8M times on X alone.
Nothing Vince Gilligan created has ever been done without the meticulous attention to detail of a serial killer. That’s absolutely the case with this social media post.
What looks like the simplest post of all time clearly has about a dozen of Gilligan’s trademark Easter eggs that are hiding right there in plain sight.
The teaser poster itself has six words. Six measly words. “From the creator of Breaking Bad.” It’s yellow in nature, it has a strange yellow goo inside of a Petri dish with someone using a cotton swab to make a smiley face and the post itself was accompanied on all of Apple’s social media with three more words, “Happiness is Contagious.”
Now…we’ll get into a conspiracy of whether it’s “Contagious” or “contagious” later in this page. Because there IS a difference depending on where you find the post. But for now, let’s get into what the post might tell us about what the show is going to be.
First, the obvious questions…
What is it? What’s it called? When’s it coming? And Who’s in it?
As for “What is it,” Gilligan has been very cautious about giving away anything other than it’s going to contain elements of science fiction (from his old school days of The X-Files) with top notch drama you’ve come to expect with his last two masterpieces.
Earlier this year, Gilligan was awarded the lifetime achievement award at the Writers Guild Award ceremony. He used his speech to express a bit of remorse for creating legendary anti-heroes like Walter White and Saul Goodman and begged writers to create more “good guys,” in the traditional sense. Although he didn’t mention him by name, the plea was certainly directed at the notion that Hollywood characters breaking bad or being the sleazeball you better call probably had a hand in the reverence of people like Donald Trump.
What does that say for his new show? I suspect its lead will be less a drastically flawed anti-hero and more a more traditional champion who you can feel good about rooting for. It would make sense if Gilligan took his own advice.
As for the title, no one knows what this show is actually going to be called. For years it’s had the working title of “Wycaro 339.” That’s what it’s been referred to online despite no one from Apple, Sony or Camp Vince suggesting nor confirming that actually is the actual title of the series (because it almost certainly isn’t).
Vegas odds would certainly put “Happiness is Contagious” as odds-on favorite for the actual title, but that remains to be seen.
I’m starting to talk myself into the idea that it’s going to be called “Happiness is Contagious,” but I also wouldn’t be remotely shocked if it isn’t. If it also isn’t Wycaro 339 (which is the only thing we’ve got to work with), then there’s really not much else we can guess…other than that it’s right in front of us.
The jury is still firmly out on what the title of the series will be…and also when it will air. Fingers crossed for late 2025.
I think the most likely release time is early 2026. That seems to coincide with yesterday’s Ted Lasso reemergence and I think it’s doubtful that it will be here by year’s end. But a boy can hope, guys!
You can also likely expect it to be a weekly episodic drop as Apple rarely drops entire seasons of anything in their entirety. And honestly, who in the absolute hell wants to watch a Vince Gilligan show 8-10 episodes in a row?! Gottta let that shit digest.
To coincide with today’s social media blast, Apple TV’s YouTube channel launched a live countdown to something that’s coming at exactly 3PM (EST) on Friday July 25th.
Nearly everyone online is speculating it’s a trailer.
Fair warning. You’re gonna need to come get me from the hospital on Friday night.
We know the series will star the incomparable Rhea Seehorn. Any other casting information has been incredibly limited. It was reportedly mainly shot in Albuquerque. So it will probably have the same look as other Gilligan series.
What Does “Happiness is Contagious” Mean?
Is this some kind of an outbreak show? We know that it’s got a sci-fi element. Is that a supernatural element? An environmental theme perhaps? And why is “Happiness” the contagion? Perhaps that’s a reference to Seehorn’s character’s unfulfilled life.
Vince Gilligan has a deep rooted history of finding meaningful historical and social contexts for his stories. I found one that seems to fit quite neatly into this one, and I’d like to offer it to you.
Jessica Cerretani, now of Boston Children’s Hospital wrote a Harvard Journal of Medicine article in 2011 entitled “The Contagion of Happiness,” that begins, “Everyone, it seems – from Buddhist monks to psychologist to Charles Schulz to the Beatles has offered opinions on what it means to be happy. And whether you believe that bliss is found with a warm puppy, a Prozac prescription or the pages of self-help books, you likely crave more of it.”
The article discusses the medical, scientific and sociological explanations for happiness and why humans seek it interminably.
It’s absolutely plausible that Gilligan would create a show about the pursuit of happiness…and equally as plausible that he’d draw inspiration from an easily accessible Harvard study on how to pursue it.
Speaking of Charles Schulz, “Happiness” is also the closing number of the Broadway production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” …whose colors famously happen to be…
What’s With All the Yellow and the Harvey Ball Smiley Face?
We have no idea why Gilligan would reference Harvey Ball, a famous artist from Worcester, MA in this poster…but he did it for sure. Harvey Ball created the yellow smiley face. The symbol obviously represents happiness and euphoria. Ball’s smiley face has also become synonymous with the phrase “have a nice day.”
The colors (both in the forefront and the background of the poster) and the drawn smiley face markedly resemble Ball’s most famous work.
Is it “Contagious” or “contagious”
The X (formally twitter) post says, “Happiness is Contagious,” while the current Instagram version says, “Happiness is contagious.” I might be crazy, but I think the Instagram post is possibly edited. I thought it was capitalized when I first saw it, and now it is not. I could be wrong. Unsurprisingly I looked at every Breaking Bad / Better Call Saul account you can imagine today. So they’re starting to blend in my pea brain.
Regardless, if Contagious is capitalized that suggests it’s could be a proper noun. It’s not capitalized in other official show(s) social media accounts (more on that below)
Further, is Happiness a place or a person? It’s also capitalized in all social media posts. Theoretically it doesn’t have to be as punctuation doesn’t really matter with these things. Happiness could be someone’s name, nickname or even the thing that they’re running away from.
Most likely it’s capitalized because this is a show about the quest for enlightenment and how to spread it and that will run as a heavy subtle underlying theme throughout. If it’s set in a town called Happiness that would be cheesy but also make a lot of sense.
What’s with the Petri dish and cotton swab (and whose finger is that?)
We have to assume that’s Rhea Seehorn’s hand, right?It’s pretty likely that this show will have some sort of medical research element to it. Not much of a surprise given the importance of those things in both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
But we’ve been told this is a complete break from that universe….but should we believe that?
Why was the post shared on the Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul social media pages?
Almost certainly the answer to that question is that they wanted as much exposure to this as possible and so many people follow those pages. But perhaps that’s not what’s going on here….shenanigans are afoot? SHENANIGANS!
The Breaking Bad X account has been dormant since September of 2024. The Better Call Saul account last tweeted in February of this year. They both sprung to life to promote this series.
Although there’s no actual reason to believe it has anything to do with the Breaking Bad universe, it still hasn’t been formally ruled out by anyone. When Gilligan made El Camino he did so explicitly under an incredible level of secrecy and emphatically denied that he was doing it until it was officially reported otherwise.
He also flew Bryan Cranston out from New York City overnight with military level security to shoot his scenes.
Look…we’re talking one percent…a fraction of one percent chance here. But there’s still a chance.
My most educated guess is that Gilligan’s new series starring Rhea Seehorn will heavily rely on the theme of the pursuit of happiness and will include a cast of characters looking for it in a manner where you fall in love with all of them. But it’s not really hard to fall in love with any character that Gilligan has created. So it should be an easy task.
It seems pretty likely that there will also be a constant theme of the series that highlights why people want to be happy. A theme that’s literally been studied by Harvard researchers.
…and truly, leave it to the great Vince Gilligan to save the planet by shining a massive light on the importance of Happiness (with a capital H) in a world shroud in such inalienable misery, right now. Am I here for it? You’re god damn right, I am.
Did I miss anything? Register for an account and comment below.
Or better yet, share it on your social media accounts. Feel free to capitalize whatever you want.
I love you all. Have a nice day.
I think you’re all made of sterner stuff.
Tube Notes with Ryan Benharris 