Image via Amazon Studios
There’s a buzz like no other building behind the upcoming Swarm, which marks Donald Glover’s latest televisionary experience.
Glover’s Atlanta came to a close in November of last year after four acclaimed and inventive seasons, each challenging viewers in a way few series have dared, even in the creatively freeing streaming era.
Among other artistic feats, the FX original provided a measured, but ultimately loving, view of the American South. More specifically, Glover and company treated Georgia as not only a canvas upon which they could paint challenging stories that often veered from the show’s main cast, but also as a wellspring from which those same stories culled their power.
This proved a winning approach in the eyes of fellow southern-born creatives and television critics alike, with the series ultimately going on to bag multiple nominations and wins at the Golden Globes and the Emmys, not to mention multiple inclusions in high-profile rankings of the greatest series of all time.
Atlanta was also praised early into its four-season run for having assembled an all-Black writers’ room, with Janine Nabers standing as a crucial voice in the back half of the series. Prime Video’s Swarm sees Nabers and Glover working together again, this time both sharing creator credits.
Ahead of the new series’ March 17 premiere, we take a look at what all is known (and unknown) about Swarm so far. Read more below.
Donald Glover directed the pilot
The first episode is directed by Glover, who also helmed a number of Atlanta entries, the Globe-winning “B.A.N.” among them. However, Glover is not expected to take on this role for all episodes. Also currently unclear is whether he will tap into the same roster of uniquely complementary voices he enlisted across Atlanta, including his Childish Gambino collaborator Hiro Murai (fingers crossed!).
Dominique Fishback leads a cast also featuring Chlöe Bailey and Damson Idris
Dominique Fishback stars as Dre, a woman whose obsession with a seemingly Beyoncé-inspired pop megastar takes a decidedly dark turn.
“When we shot the last scene of the pilot, every single person stopped what they were doing and gave Dom a standing ovation for three minutes,” Nabers told Vanity Fair when speaking about the uniquely powerful performance in this show by Fishback, whose 2023 also includes this June’s Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
Joining her in Swarm are Chloe Bailey, who plays Dre’s sister, and Damson Idris, who stars as the character’s boyfriend.
A 1982 Scorsese classic is a key source of inspiration
In the same Vanity Fair feature, Glover Cited Martin Scorsese’s 1982 film The King of Comedy as a reference point for the new series. The film, starring Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis, follows a similarly obsessed man who goes to troubling lengths (i.e. kidnapping, and eventually prison time) to launch his own comedy career.
“We just thought it’d be fun to make a post-truth Piano Teacher mixed with The King of Comedy,” Glover told the magazine. The former, directed by Michael Haneke and based on Elfriede Jelinek’s book, won multiple Cannes Film Festival awards upon its debut in 2001 under the French title La Pianeste.
Glover’s ‘Atlanta’ collaborator Janine Nabers is co-creator and showrunner
As mentioned above, Swarm reteams Glover and Nabers after their inarguable artistic magic on FX’s Atlanta. Nabers served as an executive producer on the show and wrote Season 4’s Episode 5, titled “Work Ethic!” about a Tyler Perry-like Hollywood director. In October, Nabers reflected on bringing the show to a fitting conclusion, including crafting appropriate ends for each individual main character.
“I joined Atlanta as a fan,” she told Complex at the time. “I came in for Seasons 3 and 4, so the fact that I was given this opportunity at all was really awesome. But I think we really became a family. We’re all super close and I just think that we’ve done this really cool thing with Season 4, where we really give these characters the ending that I think they deserve.”
Soon after Glover and the crew wrapped filming on Atlanta, production kicked off for Swarm. The team shared images on Instagram from the set as early as April 2022, showing that things were already in motion long before the FX series finale. Glover is keeping it all in the family and bringing along his brother Stephen Glover on this ride again, as well as other writers, directors, and producers who worked on Atlanta, including Jamal Olori, Ibra Ake, and Adamma Ebo.
Malia Obama worked on the show
Among the first dispatches from behind the scenes of Swarm centered around the reports that Malia Obama, daughter to former POTUS Barack and former First Lady Michelle, had joined the writers’ room.
In March 2022, for example, her writing style and commitment as part of the larger writing team were praised by Glover himself. At the time, the project was being discussed using the since-ditched title of Hive. She is currently listed as one of the writers on the show’s fifth episode. “We really wanted to give her the opportunity to get her feet wet in TV and see if this is something she wants to continue doing,” Nabers told Entertainment Weekly.
'Swarm' is not Glover’s first project for Amazon
While Atlanta carried out its four-season run on FX, Glover’s relationship with Amazon actually dates back to 2019. That year, Glover co-wrote and starred in the musical short Guava Island, directed by Hiro Murai. The Prime Video release also starred Rihanna and Letitia Wright, with its roster of musical numbers boasting an alternate version of the ubiquitous 2018 Gambino single “This Is America.”
After working on Guava Island, Glover was reported in 2021 to have signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios, as was his brother (another Atlanta alum) Stephen Glover. A Mr. & Mrs. Smith series was originally set to see Glover starring alongside Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge; however, the actress later departed the show and was replaced by Maya Erskine (PEN15).
Nabers, who also wrote for HBO’s Watchmen, also signed an overall deal with Amazon Studios and was reportedly kicking the deal off with a tech drama called Syd as her first project. Deadline reported that Syd is about a Black tech CEO who wakes up one morning to discover that his life has been hacked by a mysterious entity.
Prime Video releases a teaser trailer for 'Swarm'
Prime Video added to the already-existing hype for the show by sharing a new teaser trailer in February, ahead of its SXSW debut taking place in March. The show will arrive on Prime Video a week later on March 17. The teaser trailer didn’t give much away about the show, but it featured Fishback along with a distant sound of buzzing bees, which seemed to go along with the theme about a woman’s “obsession with a pop star,” and the show is also said to be inspired by Beyoncé and her Beyhive. A voice-over also repeats the question, “Who’s your favorite artist?” throughout the duration of the trailer. Check out the creepy clip above.
Full-length 'Swarm' trailer offers deepest look yet
The fittingly ominous teaser was followed by the release of the series’ first full-length trailer.
“She is not like everybody else,” we hear in narration form in the trailer, which gives us the most in-depth look yet at how this story of dark obsession will play out. “She knows what we’re thinking and she gives it a name. She’s a goddess.”
The proceedings are soundtracked by a cover of the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind.” Alongside the trailer’s unveiling, we also learned the series will feature appearances from Paris Jackson, Rickey Thompson, Byron Bowers, Kiersey Clemons, and Rory Culkin.