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I Genuinely Can’t Watch “Swarm” The Same Way Again After Learning These Behind-The-Scenes Facts
I Genuinely Can't Watch "Swarm" The Same Way Again After Learning These Behind-The-Scenes Facts,"Every single person stopped what they were doing and gave Dom a standing ovation for three minutes."

I Genuinely Can’t Watch “Swarm” The Same Way Again After Learning These Behind-The-Scenes Facts

???This post contains spoilers for Swarm???

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This is subtly acknowledged before each episode with the text: “This is not a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is intentional.”

Swarm‘s version of the singer, Ni’Jah, releases a visual album (à la Beyoncé’s self-titled album in 2013), has a sister who fights her husband in an elevator (like the Solange and Jay-Z incident following 2014’s Met Gala), has twins (Beyoncé had her twins in 2017), and is bitten at a party (like Beyoncé reportedly was in 2018).

Prime Video

2. Swarm is the first project in Donald Glover’s development deal with Amazon Prime Video.

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It was originally called Hive.

ABC

3. It’s also the first of Glover’s projects that he’s worked only behind the camera on.

Axelle / FilmMagic via Getty Images

He’s always acted in every movie or show he’s directed, written, and/or produced until now.

FX

4. Speaking of which, Glover directed the pilot of Swarm.

Courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

5. He and co-creator, Janine Nabers, used Tony Soprano and Don Draper as inspiration for Dre.

AMC / Via giphy.com

“We were really interested in creating an antihero story…through the lens of a Black, modern-day woman,” Nabers, who was a writer and producer on Glover’s series, Atlanta, said in an interview with Vanity Fair.

Arnold Turner / Getty Images for Prime Video

6. Dominique Fishback, who stars as Dre, the Black, modern-day woman in question, was handpicked by Glover and Nabers…

Michael Tran / AFP via Getty Images

Fishback told Vanity Fair, “I heard from my team that Donald was creating a show and wanted me to be part of it. I was like, ‘Oh, shoot! Donald Glover knows me. That’s pretty cool.'”

Marcus Ingram / Getty Images for ABA

7. …but they wanted her for a different role.

Prime Video

She revealed that they originally asked her to play Dre’s sister, Marissa, but she lobbied to play the lead.

“I don’t want to be able to catch up to myself as an actor,” the actor said. “[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.”

8. Chloe Bailey, who was ultimately cast as Marissa, and her sister, Halle, make up the musical group Chloe x Halle, which is signed to Beyoncé’s label, Parkwood.

Tommaso Boddi / Getty Images for Prime Video

9. Despite being told she didn’t have the “it” factor by a guidance counselor when she was in middle school, Fishback received a three-minute standing ovation when filming for the pilot wrapped.

Warrick Page / courtesy of Amazon Prime Video

“Every single person stopped what they were doing,” Nabers revealed to Entertainment Weekly. “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.'”

Warrick Page / Warrick Page/Prime Video

10. Fishback had a connection to Beyoncé prior to Swarm.


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11. Nirine S. Brown, who plays Ni’Jah, also had a previous connection to the singer.

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Gregg Deguire / FilmMagic via Getty Images

He also directed Episode 6, and appeared as Ni’Jah’s husband, Caché, in Episode 3.

Prime Video

13. Barack and Michelle Obama’s daughter, Malia, is a writer on the show.

Prime Video

She wrote Episode 5, “Girl, Bye.”

“She’s a very professional person,” Nabers told Entertainment Weekly. “She’s an incredible writer and artist. We really wanted to give her the opportunity to get her feet wet in TV and see if this is something she wants to continue doing.”

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Prime Video

“Paris was great,” Nabers told Variety. “She’s a professional. She came in and asked all the right questions. I’m a Jewish woman, she identifies as Jewish, so we bonded about that. And she trusted us. She was like, ‘I understand what this role is, and here’s how I’m gonna approach it.’ She really just owned it this character of a light-passing biracial woman who is really intent on letting everyone know about her Blackness.”

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Prime Video / TLK Filmworks / Via youtube.com

Darren Cain in the 2022 film Rift.

Given that he introduces himself as Jesse, says he stars on Grey’s Anatomy, and actually resembles Williams when we see his blurry self being walked away from by Dre, it’s clear who this person is supposed to be. The actor is actually Darren Cain.

Axelle / FilmMagic / Getty Images

16. This is Billie Eilish’s first acting credit.

Prime Video

She plays Eva, a cult leader who gets inside Dre’s head.

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Prime Video

In the first episode, after hooking up with Culkin’s unnamed character, Dre wakes up at his place, where he’s ready to greet her — completely nude — with a bowl of strawberries.

Gregg Deguire / FilmMagic / Getty Images

“Donald told this very funny story about a girl who he really liked, and how after they hooked [up], he was standing there with a bowl of cherries, just being like, ‘Hey,'” Nabers revealed to Insider. “She was like, so not into it, because it’s so weird to hook up with a guy that you barely know and then wake up with him holding a bowl of cherries.”

Rodin Eckenroth / Getty Images

After learning more about the show, I think it might be time for a rewatch!

Quantrell D. Colbert / Quantrell D. Colbert/Prime Video

Have you seen Swarm? Tell us what you thought about it in the comments below!