In the first trailer Swarm — the upcoming Amazon thriller co-created by Atlanta‘s Donald Glover – clearly stands out as a story of misanthropic fandom, much like Steven King’s Wrong. In a new, longer and creepier trailer, the show appears to be satirizing a very specific fandom: Beyoncé’s.
Co-created with playwright and Guardians writer Janine Nabers (who serves as showrunner), Swarm Set between 2016-2018, it “follows Dre (Dominique Fishback), an obsessed fan of the world’s biggest pop star who embarks on an unexpected journey across the country.”
In the new trailer, that big pop star – named Ni’Jah – is wearing a strong resemblance to Beyoncé, at least in how she is discussed by her fans. Bee themes and imagery permeate the trailer, with eerie beehive imagery and the fandom taking on the moniker “swarm” clearly riffing on Beyoncé’s fandom, which is called the Beyhive.
The trailer positions Swarm as an uncanny interrogation of how fans routinely express admiration for celebrities on social media — perhaps to the extent of physically expressing the hyperbolic and sometimes violent language fans use to gush about their favorite artists.
It will be those fans So chill about this.
Swarm premieres on Prime Video on March 17.
