While Donald Glover has closed the chapter on his beloved FX series Atlanta, he’s starting another with his forthcoming TV series Swarm.
The show follows a young woman named Dre (played by Dominique Fishback) who is obsessed with a fictional pop star who is reportedly similar to Beyoncé, according to Vanity Fair.
Glover — whose has witnessed fans’ parasocial relationship with artists first-hand through his rap alter ego Childish Gambino — worked on the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series with Atlanta writer and producer Janine Nabers, who is Swarm‘s showrunner.
“We were really interested in creating an antihero story,” Nabers told Vanity Fair in an interview, citing Mad Men’s Don Draper and The Sopranos’ Tony Soprano as inspirations for their re-envisioning of the archetype “through the lens of a Black, modern-day woman.” Swarm will dig deeper into Dre’s fandom and will take a dark direction.
Chlöe Bailey will play Marissa, Dre’s sister, while Damson Idris plays her boyfriend. “She’s an incredible person and she can really tap into the humanity of sisterhood,” said Nabers, who commended the star’s understanding of the music industry and relationship with her own sister, singer and actress Halle Bailey. Chlöe Bailey is one-half of the Grammy-nominated R&B sister duo Chloe x Halle and has also embarked on her own solo career, with her debut project due in March.
“A lot of people did it out of the kindness of their hearts and they did a really great job,” Glover added. “Dom, Damson, Chloe. I was really blown away at how hard they worked on the tone, ’cause it’s a strange one.”
Malia Obama is also involved in Swarm in the writer’s room, which Glover confirmed last spring in an another VF interview where he described her as “an amazingly talented person” and “really focused” when it comes to her work.
See the first photos from Swarm below.
