Is Swarm based on a true story?

It devolves into a tale of murder and deception, and includes appearances from the likes of Billie Eilish and Paris Jackson to social media star and actor Rickey Thompson – but is the show based on a true story?

Each episode starts with the statement: "This is not a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is intentional." So, while you'll definitely be thinking of a certain megastar while watching the series, are other parts of the drama based on factual events also?

Read on for everything you need to know about the true story behind Swarm but be warned: there are spoilers for the series ahead.

Is Swarm based on a true story?

It is and isn't. The series is based on several stories and is based around a general feeling of fan culture, rather than one specific person. However, you'll undoubtedly watch it feeling as though the series is about one megastar and one megastar only: Beyoncé.

The series pays reference to Beyoncé and the 'Beyhive', Beyoncé's legion of loyal followers who use the logo of a bee as their online emblem. Of course, the constant buzzing sounds of bees throughout the series, as well as Ni'Jah's fandom being referred to as 'the Swarm', is a direct reference to reality. So too are more subtle references like one character professing they prefer Ni'Jah's "more soulful sister", drawing comparison to Beyoncé and her sister, Solange.

Co-creator and showrunner Janine Nabers has revealed that the show also went through multiple title iterations, with the names Yellow and Hive being considered at one time. While the story of Dre and her journey throughout the series are a work of fiction, it has drawn inspiration from real life events.

Marissa (who is played by Chloe Bailey) commits suicide in episode 1, prompting Dre's revenge mission throughout the series. She does so after Ni'Jah unexpectedly releases an album where she reveals that her husband Caché cheated on her. The album prompts Marissa to break up with her boyfriend Khalid (Damson Idris) and send Dre a slew of emotional texts, cataloguing her evening drama and saying that her best friend was right about Khalid all along.

But the album-prompted death was actually inspired by a real-life rumour that was doing the rounds on social media back in 2016 upon the release of Beyoncé's Lemonade. Speaking about Swarm, Nabers said: "In April 2016, when a certain visual album dropped… there was a rumour that a girl named Marissa Jackson killed herself because she realised that a certain pop star was being cheated on by her husband.

"I was on a text thread with some of my Houstonian friends, and for two days we thought this was a real event — until it was dispelled later on Black Twitter. So when Donald [Glover] pitched this idea about a Black woman who’s obsessed with a pop star, I said 'I know what the pilot is' and ran with it."

In an interview with Shondaland, Nabers revealed that the event was memorable for her as a Black woman from Houston, but also because people were tweeting "really horrible things about this woman who had killed herself and making fun of her".

Swarm's first episode outlines those same events with Marissa, and the negative online response is what prompts Dre to embark on her cross-country mission over the next couple of years.

Is Swarm inspired by Beyoncé?

The writing team behind Swarm – which includes Donald Glover's brother Stephen (who also co-wrote Atlanta with Donald and Janine) and Barack Obama's daughter Malia – spent several months researching rumours, theories and social media stories about fan culture to pay homage to in the series.

One of them is the 2018 rumour of a fan biting Beyoncé, which Tiffany Haddish outlined in an interview with GQ. This happens at the end of episode 3, when we see Dre get excited about being close to Ni'Jah in a club and in the fourth episode, see that social media is awash with fan theories over Dre's identity.

Speaking to Den of Geek about the series, Nabers said: "When you’re looking at the seven episodes that span a two and a half year period, we are basically showing things that have existed on the internet as stories or news stories and then we put our main character in the middle of all of that."

If you're watching the series and wondering whether Swarm can hark so dangerously close to reality without facing some kind of legal trouble, it's all alright. While it's been unconfirmed (but rumoured) about whether Beyoncé has or has not watched Swarm, Nabers confirms that everything about the series is above board.

She said in her interview with Shondaland: "Look, Donald and Beyoncé are obviously friends. They’ve worked together, they are colleagues, so many people in our camp have worked with her and know her. And then Amazon is a legit corporation, right? So, we’re not going to do anything that is remotely uncouth.

"Everything has been legally combed through, [and] these are real events that have existed in the world. We’re just giving people faces and names and giving them dialogue."

Is Billie Eilish's character based on a true story?

In her acting debut, Billie Eilish stars as Eva, the kind of warm and inviting character you can't help but like and then immediately be suspicious of. Dre crosses paths with her and her commune on the way to a music festival where she hopes to see Ni'Jah.

Dre's invited into the group's home and stays with them after being promised free tickets through a friend for the festival that they're all set to attend. Together, they all go on hikes and take part in 'EU', a form of therapy led by Eva, the female empowerment group's executive director. Dre gets prompted into doing one and subsequently reveals her true identity and her past.

While Eva's appearance in the series is limited to one episode, it has prompted many viewers to wonder if the cult-like group is based on reality. Well, actually, it does bring in a chilling true crime element to Swarm.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Nabers referred to the NXIVM cult and its leader Keith Raniere (who in 2020 was sentenced to 120 years in prison and fined $1.75 million in a sex-trafficking case) as being inspiration for Eilish's character. She said: "There is a cult that existed in the world that was very prominent during that time.

"And that is the kind of true-crime element to that episode. And I think that when people think of the idea of artists or celebrities, there is this idea of thinking about the cult of Taylor Swift, or the cult of the Beatles or whatever. What we were really interested in was just seeing someone who worships at the altar of 'something', and [exploring] this idea of what is the cult of the mind."

Swarm is available to watch on Prime Video now. Try Amazon Prime Video for free for 30 days.

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