The Swarm TV series: The CW picks up U.S. rights to apocalyptic Frank Schatzing adaptation

An adaptation of author Frank Schätzing’s apocalyptic sci-fi novel The Swarm (you can pick up a copy at THIS LINK), not to be confused with the Donald Glover / Prime Video series Swarm, was a long time coming. In 2006, Uma Thurman and producers Michael Souvignier, Ica Souvignier, and Till Grönemeyer acquired the film rights, with The Silence of the Lambs screenwriter Ted Tally handling the adaptation and Dino De Laurentiis on board to help finance the film. But it didn’t make it into production. In 2018, it was announced that Game of Thrones executive producer Frank Doelger was teaming with Beta Film and ZDF Enterprises to bring The Swarm to the screen as an eight-part TV series. Five years later, episodes of the show finally had their premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. The Swarm is now streaming on multiple services around the world – and Deadline reports that The CW has picked up the U.S. rights.

Brad Schwartz, the President of Entertainment at The CW Network, described their acquisition of The Swarm as “a big swing”.

A global environmental thriller, The Swarm is set in a present day where anomalies and unnatural behavior in marine animals are causing upheaval all over the world. Millions of strange worms suddenly appear on the bottom of the North Sea, drilling their way through frozen methane, threatening to destabilize the entire continental shelf. Swarms of mussels stop large vessels from maneuvering. Toxic jellyfish, lobsters and whales start attacking human beings along the coasts of the world. It follows a global group of scientists and military who come together to tackle one of the biggest challenges mankind has ever faced. They make the chilling discovery that we are not the only intelligent species on this planet – and that deep down at the bottom of the sea resides a collective intelligence which has suffered the ravages of civilization on its habitat and decided to fight back.

The show stars an ensemble of actors from Europe, Japan, America, and Canada. The cast includes Cécile de France (High Tension), Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Sex Education), Jack Greenlees (Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Lydia Wilson (Flack), Krista Kosonen (Blade Runner 2049), Alexander Karim (Dying of the Light), Leonie Benesch (Babylon Berlin), Barbara Sukowa (Hannah Arendt), Takuya Kimura (I Came With the Rain), Takehiro Hiera (Giri/Haji), Rosabell Laurenti Sellers (Game of Thrones), Dutch Johnson (Veep), and Joshua Odjick (Unsettled).

The Swarm was originally expected to start filming in 2019, but the development of the series and production prep took longer than expected, then filming was delayed a year due to the pandemic. Filming finally began in the summer of 2021 and took place in Italy and Belgium.

The CW hasn’t announced when they plan to start airing The Swarm, but it’s good to know that it will be showing on U.S. screens soon.

How does The Swarm sound to you? Have you read the novel, and will you be watching the TV adaptation? Let us know by leaving a comment below.