First-look images for Donald Glover’s next television project, Swarm, starring Dominique Fishback, Chloe Bailey and Damson Idris have been released.
The images see Fishback as a woman obsessed with a Beyoncé-esque star, and her obsession leads the series into a world of darkness. The series is set for an upcoming release on Amazon’s Prime Video.
The series is co-created with Atlanta writer and producer Janine Nabers, who also serves as Swarm’s showrunner. Fishback’s character Dre is at the center of a story set in the extremes of stan culture.
“We were really interested in creating an antihero story, Nabers told Vanity Fair, adding that they wanted to create a complicated character in the vein of The Sopranos‘ Tony Soprano and Mad Men‘s Don Draper, but “through the lens of a Black, modern-day woman.”
Fishback also told Vanity Fair that she was excited Glover wanted her to be a part of the series. Originally, she was asked to play Dre’s sister Marissa, who is played by Chloe Bailey, ironic since she is connected to Beyonce in real life. However, she convinced Glover and Nabers to let her play the more intense lead.
“I don’t want to be able to catch up to myself asn actor,” said Fishback. “[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 himself said to Vanity Fair that he and his brother and creative partner Stephen “were talking about finding someone like Isabelle Huppert, as far as risk-takers in performances.”
“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 said. “I’ve been doing TV for a logn time and I’ve never seen that. That was the moment that Donald and I looked at each other adn we were like, ‘All right–we got something right.'”
The series also stars Damson Idris as Marissa’s boyfriend and features writing from Malia Obama, who worked as part of the writers room. The series is executive produced by Nabers, Donald and Stephen Glover, as well as Fam Udeorji, Steven Prinz and Michael Schaefer.
Check out more photos below:
