March 24th 2023.
Janine Nabers, co-creator of Swarm with Donald Glover, expressed that she had sent a letter to Beyoncé to make her aware that the new psychological thriller was not meant to damage the status of the Beyhive.
The new Amazon Prime series showcases the story of Dre, an avid admirer of the fictional R&B star Ni’Jah, who goes to extreme lengths due to her intense fascination with the entertainer. Ni’Jah’s fan base is known as “The Swarm,” similar to Beyoncé’s Beyhive, and her image and likeness on the show is eerily similar to the real-life “Single Ladies” hitmaker.
Therefore, Nabers felt it was necessary to contact Queen Bey during the show’s production to assure her that no malice was intended.
“I wrote her a letter basically being like, ‘Yo, you’re great. I love you. This is a show that we’re working on. These are the people that are writing on it,” Nabers told Vulture.
“She’s worked with a lot of the people who have worked on our show. It’s a family. This is not a crusade to tear down anyone’s reputation,” she continued.
“I know it’s extreme, and I know that our character is doing a lot of crazy sh*t, but this is a love letter to Black women,”
When it came to why Nabers and Glover chose to base Ni’Jah around Beyoncé’s image and fanbase, it was due to the “titillating” stories and rumors the show creators heard about the star’s devoted supporters.
“I think for us, again, it’s the feeling that that person evokes,” Nabers told Elle. “There are just so many interesting stories that you read on the internet about someone or something, and you don’t know if it’s true. You’re like, “What is this story about? Who did this? Someone actually did this to someone?”
“Like “the bite,” for example…that, to me, was always just, how do you get there? How do you get to a person and bite their face?” she added.
Taking the rumors into account, Nabers and Glover looked at how the occurrences pertained to the Black community.
“Taking these titillating moments that everyone talks about, [that] every Black person I know has a theory on, and just putting our own spin on it, to me, is what makes entertainment dope, and that’s what made this process fun,” she explained.
“We were just really pleased that we were able to write the way that we wanted to write, and that Amazon legally gave us the privilege to do that.”
Nabers and Glovers’ Swarm is definitely stirring up conversation. The eerie thriller is available to stream on Amazon Prime.
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