Pluribus is giving one of its most intriguing survivors a much larger role. Samba Schutte, who played Mr. Diabaté during the Apple TV sci-fi drama’s first season, has been promoted to series regular for season 2, which is now in production. The casting upgrade arrives as filming begins, turning what was previously a memorable guest appearance into a potentially central part of the show’s next chapter.
Schutte’s Mr. Diabaté is one of the rare humans left outside the extraterrestrial collective consciousness that reshapes the world of Pluribus. Like Rhea Seehorn’s Carol Sturka, he remains immune to the outbreak, but the two characters respond to that isolation in radically different ways. While Carol searches for answers and resists the collective’s push toward enforced happiness, Diabaté embraces luxury and indulgence from his penthouse at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. His return gives the series another viewpoint on what survival means after individuality becomes humanity’s most endangered trait. Variety confirmed Schutte’s new series-regular status and the character’s immunity.
The promotion also builds on Schutte’s growing profile. The actor is known to genre-comedy fans for playing Roach in HBO’s pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death, and he previously appeared in NBC’s Sunnyside. His work as Diabaté earned a Saturn Award nomination for best guest star, making the expanded role a natural follow-up to one of the first season’s standout supporting performances.
Vince Gilligan’s series returns with considerable momentum. The first season debuted on Apple TV in November 2025 and collected 18 Emmy nominations, winning six, including outstanding lead actress for Seehorn and outstanding writing for Gilligan. Pluribus is produced for Apple by Sony Pictures Television, with Gilligan, Gordon Smith, Alison Tatlock and other members of the creative team serving as executive producers.
Production reports place the season 2 shoot in Albuquerque, New Mexico, following Gilligan’s earlier indication that filming would begin around late October or early November. Apple has not announced a premiere date, so fans should not expect the new episodes immediately; the length of the production schedule makes a 2027 or later debut plausible, but no launch window is official. What is clear is that Diabaté will have more room to complicate Carol’s mission—and to show how another immune survivor chooses to live in a world where happiness may be less a feeling than a form of assimilation.
