'Swarm' cocreator says she thinks Beyoncé has seen the show after she wrote the singer a letter about it
- "Swarm" cocreator Janine Nabers has said that Beyoncé knows about the show and may have watched it.
- The series echoes aspects of Beyoncé's life and career with its own music superstar, Ni'Jah.
"Swarm" cocreator Janine Nabers said she thinks Beyoncé may have seen the show after she contacted the singer about it.
The new Amazon Prime Video series, which premiered last week, is based on real-life fan culture, especially fans of Beyoncé, who are often referred to as the Beyhive. The series even echoes several moments from the pop legend's career.
In a new interview with Vulture, Nabers, who created the series with "Community" star Donald Glover, said she wrote a letter directly to Beyoncé before the series premiered.
"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 said.
"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. I know it's extreme, and I know that our character is doing a lot of crazy shit, but this is a love letter to Black women."
Nabers added that she thinks the "Break My Soul" singer may have even seen the show.
The cocreator said: "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 Beyoncé, they hang out legit. They're friends. They're artists from the South. If Beyoncé has wished someone a happy birthday on her website, she is actual friends with them."
Nabers also said that the moments in the show that parallel Beyoncé's life and career were "cleared legally."
"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," Nabers said.
"If it happens, you can write about it. When things happen out in the world and you're a public person — legally, we're not lying. We presented everything: 'This is not a work of fiction.' That's the first thing you see when you look at this show. And it was cleared legally, because it is not a work of fiction."
In an interview with Insider at the South by Southwest film and TV festival in Austin earlier this month, Nabers said that online stan culture is just a "backdrop" to the main story.
"This story at the end of the day is really about Dre and her relationship with her sister, and how this pilot becomes the origin story of a villain," She said.
"Swarm" season one is available to stream on Prime Video.