If Donald Glover's Swarm story feels familiar, it's because real-life fan culture isn't too far off from the one in the show. Swarm stars Dominique Fishback as Dre and Chloe Bailey as Dre's sister Marissa. Dre is obsessed with the R&B artist Nijah and her love for the singer takes a dark turn. While Dre's sister tries distancing herself, Dre becomes increasingly more obsessed, eventually leading her to murder. The Swarm trailer doesn't give away whose body Dre is hiding but shows many sequences of her cleaning up blood and covering up her crimes.
Nijah's fanbase is called The Swarm, hence Glover's show's title, and Dre has a fan Twitter dedicated to the star, much like some real-life fans have for their favorite celebrities. The trailer doesn't feature too much of Nijah, only clips of her performing and Dre watching her videos on her TV. The show seems to focus less on the artist herself and more on the wild behavior of her followers. In one scene from the trailer, Hailey (portrayed by Paris Jackson) jokes that if someone talks badly about Nijah, her fanbase will come after them. The show's dark themes might seem fictional, but they're heavily based on real-life events.
Swarm Isn't Real (But It Uses Real People's Obsessions)
Nijah may be a fake artist, and Dre's story on Amazon Prime's Swarm might be fictional, but Swarm is clearly based on Beyoncé and her massive fanbase. There have been countless times when criticism of the singer has been met with death threats and bee emojis. Like Nijha's fanbase is called The Swarm, Beyoncé's is called The Beyhive, and her fans take pride in defeating every tongue that rises against their Queen by swarming them with bee emojis on social media. When Jay-Z allegedly cheated on Beyoncé with Rachel Roy, fans got confused and flooded chef Rachael Ray's Instagram comment section with bee emojis, bewildering the cooking show host.
Swarm's trailer makes many references to bees and even has one character tell Dre she prefers Nijha's sister because she's more spiritual. This is a clear insinuation toward Beyoncé's sister Solange. The show can also relate to some other massive fanbases like those of Korean pop band BTS and superstar Taylor Swift. The popstar's loyal Swifties have their own saying, "Tayvoodoo," which they believe is the cause for the fall of Taylor's haters like Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. The show heavily leans into how what starts as iration slowly turns into an unhealthy fixation and can become very dangerous.
Why Swarm's "Not Fictional" Warning Makes The Show Better
Even though the show isn't based on a real story, it's warning viewers that their obsessions with celebrities can be just as damaging as Dre's obsession with Nijah. There have been cases of crazed stalkers breaking into celebrities' homes and trying to kill them, so while Dre is not a real person, her story isn't unheard of. The warning in the show is mocking real-life Beyoncé fans for taking their love for the singer too far, showing them where they might be headed if they don't calm down. Another ironic aspect of Swarm that relates it to real life is casting Jackson as Hailey. If anyone knows about fan obsession, it's Michael Jackson's daughter. Swarm's warning goes out to all of his fans as well.