Swarmco-creator Janine Nabers cuts through the buzz to explain the series elusive protagonist and bittersweet ending.
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Spoilers follow for Amazon Prime limited seriesSwarm.
I thought I was over serial killers.
But Amazon Primes new limited series,Swarm, is different from every other serial-killer show Ive seen.
In large part because the serial killer is a Black woman, something Ive never seen onscreen before.
But also because its designed to be provocative, and not necessarily in agruesome way.
And do it in a way that is on her terms.
Then theres the Beyonce factor.
Theres a particular Black perspective; its relaxed but still steeped in that southern mythology.
With Houston, theres so many amazing Black women musicians from there.
That put Houston on the map, in a way.
This online Zoom room was just not our vibe.
I was like,Oh, God, this sucks.
This cant be the end.Then I get this call from Donald one night.
I want this to be the show afterAtlantaand I want you to write it.
Donald is obviously a star in his own right.
He has a particular relationship with his fans where people have a go at take ownership of him.
Lets talk about Dre.
Shes a superfan who becomes violent in a quest to be close to this pop star.She is deeply misunderstood.
Its so wacky and compelling, and you cant stop thinking about the character after you watch it.
We wanted to portray a conflicting Black woman whos fighting for another Black woman.
What does that look like?
How do you consider violence in a show like this?
It starts out hard Dre enacts this horror in the premiere and then she keeps going.
Weve been seeing this shit for years with white faces.
I can almost predict what the reaction will be to this show.
The first thing theyre going to say is, Donald Glover hates Black women.
Because theyve said that before.Its silly to say that.
AfterAtlanta, he couldve had anyone in this business, and he chose to work with me.
Theres a woman Donald follows on Twitter; shes Black woman, a teacher.
We can be serial killers too.
That was part of the pitch.
And I was like, Of course we can.
They exist, and theyre just not seen or written about.
Did you know any Dres growing up?
Did you ever feel like a Dre yourself?Oh, absolutely.
I mean, Im a dark-skinned girl with a dead right eye.
I was a wild child in the world and my parents were professionals.
Texas in the 90s was very, very different.
She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
That was wild to me.
Dre, that whole line of someone complimenting your face, and youre like, What?
Im ugly I remember saying that verbatim as a kid.
My sister was Marissa, my cousin was Marissa, and my best friend was Marissa.
Janine, if you really want to go to write for TV, youre going to do that.
I watched the pilot with my partner, whos a therapist.
He asked me, Huh, is Dre on the spectrum?
And I didnt think about that until he said it.
Is she?We didnt write her that way.
Any definition that can make people comprehend the character is fine I get it.
I love when people ask me questions like that because I understand where were coming from.
But no, we didnt define her.
Dominique was like, When Im cast as a character, I sit down and I journal as them.
She wrestled with that and then realized she cant journal as Dre because Dre would never do that.
Dre doesnt go through the world with language.
She doesnt say a lot.
We see what shes thinking through her eyes and her mannerisms.
What kind of attachment or detachment did you want viewers to have with Dre?
Thats how youre supposed to experience this character.
If you really see yourself in her, thats profound.
Lets talk about NiJah.
Dre is doing anything and everything to get close to her, even killing for her.
NiJah has all these similarities to Beyonce.
Was there any fear in doing that?No, because we approached it with a lot of respect.
And Amazon is a corporation, right?
The legal stuff we did was very calculated, purposeful, and thoughtful.
If it happens, you’re able to write about it.
When things happen out in the world and youre a public person legally, were not lying.
We presented everything: This is not a work of fiction.
Thats the first thing you see when you look at this show.
And it was cleared legally, because it is not a work of fiction.
Its about the feeling of being somewhere when our version of the Berlin Wall came down.
This show almost feels like an inverse of the real world.
The Beyonce character, NiJah, is dark-skinned.
You dont see a woman whos Nirines color that is at the level of stardom that Rihanna is at.
That was very, very purposeful, and Im really proud of that.
Have you met Beyonce?No, Ive never met her.
Well, that needs to change.I know.
Has she seen the show?I think she has, actually.
She knows about the show.
People who are in the orbit of Donald know about this show.
You Google Donald and Beyonce, they hang out legit.
Theyre artists from the South.
If Beyonce has wished someone a happy birthday on her website, she is actual friends with them.
This is a show that were working on.
These are the people that are writing on it.
Shes worked with a lot of the people who have worked on our show.
This is not a crusade to tear down anyones reputation.
She goes on a journey of her own to decipher who this woman is.
Could I have saved her or could I have become her?
That is the question of the episode.
When you take ownership of someone that youve never met, that is 100 percent an addiction.
I want to be seen.
But I would not say this is our way of hitting the thematic lens of addiction.
How do you see her fall into that groove again?
We knew the real events we would dramatize through the lens of our character.
I love that final scene where, in her head, Dre is with NiJah at this big concert.
NiJah brings her onstage and brings her to her vehicle afterwards and holds her.
It took me two watches to realize the line between real and imagination had been crossed.
I want to know the process behind that final scene of the final episode.Its a bittersweet ending.
Donald pitched that to me.
Dre has gone through so much.
Youre not entirely on her side.
Youre like, That woman had a psychotic break.
Whatever that woman saw, it was so beautiful and glorious that she did this horrifying thing.
There is a person that ran onstage at a concert in Atlanta for a certain pop star.
That was recorded, and that persons name was Tony.
What happened to that person in reality?
Im pretty sure they were arrested.
Who knows who that person is today.
Was that on purpose?Theres a full circle.
Theyre driving home together.
Because NiJahs face is Marissas face, right?
Theyre driving home to their apartment just to kick it again.
Theres a fine line.
What is the question you most hope viewers leave this show with?
Because you dont leave too many answers.Will there be more shows like this in the world?
Hopefully the answer is yes.
And now there are Black people telling a story I never thought I would see Black people tell.
How did they get that made?
How do you make that legally, and physically, and psychologically?
How did Dominique Fishback do this role?
How did Donald Glover pitch this, come up with this idea?
How did Janine write that?
I want people to ask those questions.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
