Donald Glover’s Swarm: Everything We Know So Far

There’s been a lot of mystery surrounding Swarm, the new horror-thriller series from Donald Glover and Atlanta writer Janine Nabers. When the project was first announced, all that was revealed was that Dominique Fishback would star, Malia Obama was in the writers' room, and that at least one character would be a “Beyoncé-like figure.” Now that Prime Video has released the series’s first teaser, we have a bit more information on what to expect from the show that Nabers has called “a sister to Atlanta.”

What is Swarm about?

The horror-thriller series follows Dre (Fishback), an obsessive fan of a Beyoncé-like pop star. Her fandom takes a dark and, by the looks of the teaser, violent turn. Dre has a sister and a boyfriend, but there’s not much yet revealed about her relationship with either, and the only dialog spoken in the teaser is one line, eerily repeated over and over: “Who is your favorite artist?”

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Glover reveals the series is shot on film, features scenes with very long takes, and has plenty of “narratively risky” moments. Glover and Nabers also revealed in that interview that this is an antihero story in the same vein as Mad Men and The Sopranos, but through the lens of a modern-day Black woman. “We just thought it’d be fun to make a post-truth Piano Teacher mixed with The King of Comedy,” Glover told Vanity Fair.

When will Swarm premiere?

Amazon Studios announced that all episodes of Season 1 will stream March 17 on Prime Video. Before then though, the series will make its debut at opening night of the 2023 SXSW Film and TV Festival on March 10.

Who is in the cast and crew for Swarm?

Along with Fishback, the series stars Chole Bailey (Grown-ish) as Dre’s sister and Damson Idris (Snowfall) as Dre’s boyfriend.

Along with Obama, the Swarm writers' room and other crew is made up of mostly Atlanta alums, contributing to keeping Swarm in what Glover and Nabers call “same tonal space” as Atlanta, which is to say one that is surreal and genre-bending.

Brianna Wellen is a TV Reporter at Primetimer who became obsessed with television when her parents let her stay up late to watch E.R.