SAN ANTONIO – The SA Live team headed up north to Austin for SXSW over the weekend to cover world premieres of films and TV shows, including Prime Video’s “Swarm.”
We chatted with the stars of the new horror series, which was created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover. Glover even directed the first episode of the show.
The storyline follows a young woman’s obsession with a pop star. Spoiler alert: things take a dark turn and get out of hand.
The name of the show draws parallels to American singer and songwriter Beyoncé's loyal fan base, the “BeyHive.”
When asked where she drew her inspiration, executive producer Janine Nabers said, “We researched this show for six and a half months before we wrote it. So, we found, I would say, 99 percent of it online. Obviously, there are some things that have been exaggerated for TV, but it’s not a work of fiction. It’s a well-researched project, and we just put a black woman in the center of these stories.”
The storyline and characters also appear to have similarities to Selena Quintanilla’s tragic death by a fan.
“For my character, Marissa, the inspiration I drew from was myself and traumas I haven’t healed from,” said co-star Chloe Bailey. “It was healing acting it out, yeah.”
“I think what I would want fans to take away from this show is everybody is just figuring it out and we don’t know what’s going on in people’s homes,” co-star Dominique Fishback said. “While social media - I love it because you get opportunity to connect with people across the world and the people that you do admire, you don’t always get that. But there’s also that other side where it can be scary or it can give you anxiety or it can really have a hold on your mental health.”
We don’t know how “Swarm” will end, but it promises to be a twisted good time with commentary on fan culture and our obsession with music industry stars.
Keep an eye out for more SXSW coverage from SA Live in the coming days!