Swarm: Donald Glover’s Beyoncé-themed ‘sister series’ to Atlanta

Donald Glover’s Atlanta received near-universal acclaim for its surrealistic take on the city’s hip hop scene before the fourth series brought the show to a close last year. Now, the writer, director, and musician is set to bring us a “sister” show in the form of Swarm, which will explore the other side of stardom from the “same tonal space”.

Described by Glover as a “post-truth Piano Teacher mixed with The King of Comedy” in a recent interview with Vanity Fair – referencing the Michael Haneke psychodrama and Scorsese dark comedy, respectively – Swarm is created by Glover and Atlanta writer Janine Nabors. Plenty of other crew members, including Stephen Glover, are also returning from the earlier show. Dominique Fishback, meanwhile, stars as Dre, a young woman obsessed with a fictional pop star (who is, by the sounds of it, basically Beyoncé).

Revolving around Dre’s superfandom and its tendency to take her to some dark and unexpected (and seemingly bloody) places, Swarm was apparently envisioned as a classic anti-hero story, along the lines of Tony Soprano or Mad Men’s Don Draper, but “through the lens of a Black, modern-day woman”. 

In terms of casting, Donald and Stephen Glover’s mood board included “risk-takers” like The Piano Teacher’s Isabelle Huppert, and it definitely sounds like Fishback delivered, getting a three-minute standing ovation after filming the last scene of the pilot. As if that isn’t enough to look forward to, the cast also includes Chloe x Halle’s Chloe Bailey and Damson Idris, with Malia Obama (a nepo baby of presidential scale, but also an “amazingly talented person”) bringing a younger voice to the writer’s room.

Flick through the gallery above for a first look at Swarm. The show is set to be released via Amazon Prime on March 10.