‘Swarm’ Trailer: Donald Glover’s Beyoncé-Inspired Series Is a Bloody Take on Stan Culture
Hell hath no fury like a pop stan scorned. This may as well be the tagline for the new Donald Glover series Swarm, based on the bloody trailer that dropped Friday morning.
If you’ve been on the internet over the past few years, you know that fans of pop artists can either be the funniest or most terrifying demographic (usually, the latter) to engage with. It feels appropriate, then, that Glover, a proven master of horror and comedy, would take on this social media archetype in his first post-Atlanta venture.
If it wasn’t obvious from the title, the Prime Video series—premiering at SXSW on March 10 and hitting the streamer on March 17—is a not-so-subtle wink to one stan army in particular. In the trailer, we see The Deuce star Dominique Fishback obsess over a Black female musician named Ni’Jah whose fans profess their love through bee emojis. In one scene, Fishback is gazing at a poster for the fictional singer’s “Running Scared II” tour. In another, she’s using a new credit card to purchase $1,800 concert tickets. (If you still don’t know whose fanbase the show is referring to, her name rhymes with fiancé.)