You know that picture Donald Glover posted that featured Dominique Fishback, Chloe Bailey and Damson Idris that we speculated was for Glover and Janine Nabers’ upcoming untitled series for Amazon. Well we were right. The series (officially titled) Swarm is coming to Prime on March 17th.
Swarm centers on Dre (Fishback), a young woman who is obsessed with a fictional (Beyonce-inspired) pop star. The show is a dive into Dre’s life, her fandom, and how it takes her to dark, unexpected places. Bailey stars in the show as Marissa, Dre’s sweet sister, and Idris portray her charismatic boyfriend.
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While speaking to Vanity Fair, Glover and Nabers spoke on the show’s concept and how Fishback reveals how she fought for her lead spot.
“We just thought it’d be fun to make a post-truth Piano Teacher mixed with The King of Comedy,” Glover told Vanity Fair, referencing the 2001 Michael Haneke drama and the 1982 Martin Scorsese classic. “We were really interested in creating an antihero story,” Nabers added explaining the show, “through the lens of a Black, modern-day woman.”
Swarm which was shot on film, features intimidatingly long takes, and, like Atlanta, has a number of narratively risky moments, requiring an actor who was completely committed and could deliver a resonant performance.
A task Fishback was not only up for, but fought for. Although she was originally cast as Marissa, she urged the creators to let her take on the challenge of Dre. “I don’t want to be able to catch up to myself as an actor. Dre] didn’t give a lot of direction about who she was, why she felt the way she did. I really had to go on instinct.”
Glover added about Fishback, “Me and my brother Stephen were talking about finding someone like Isabelle Huppert, as far as risk-takers in performances.”
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And according to Nabers, Fishback nailed the role.“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 says. “I’ve been doing TV for a long time and I’ve never seen that. That was the moment that Donald and I looked at each other and we were like, ‘All right—we got something right.’”
Additional details of the show haven’t been given but Malia Obama is part of the writers room and the show’s crew is comprised mostly of people who worked on Atlanta—to the point where Swarm feels like “a sister to Atlanta.” Swarm lives in “the same tonal space” as Glover’s Emmy-winning, genre-bending FX series.
“A lot of people did it out of the kindness of their hearts and they did a really great job,” Glover writes. “Dom, Damson, Chloe. I was really blown away at how hard they worked on the tone, ’cause it’s a strange one.”
Check out the show’s first look below.
