The CW Puts ‘Nancy Drew’ Spinoff ‘Tom Swift’ on the Fast Track

Damian Holbrook August 30, 2021, 3:30 pm

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Tom Swift Tian Richards Nancy Drew — Shane Harvey/The CW

The already awesome Nancy Drew-niverse is expanding and it’s about time!

This afternoon, the CW announced that it is giving Tom Swift a straight-to-series order for the 2021-22 season, which is ironic, since the character is fabulously far from straight.

(Credit: Colin Bentley/The CW)

First introduced to viewers when Tian Richards‘s Swift guested on the “Celestial Visitor” episode of Nancy Drew, the spin-off “follows the serialized adventures of its titular Black, gay, billionaire inventor who is thrust into a world of sci-fi conspiracy and unexplained phenomena after the shocking disappearance of his father.” The release goes on to state that “Tom takes to the road on a quest to unravel the truth, leaving behind the comforts of his usual moneyed lifestyle, all while fighting to stay one step ahead of an Illuminati-scale group hell-bent on stopping him. Tom’s missions will require his genius and flair for innovation guided by love, romance, friendship, and the mysteries of the universe yet-unsolved.”

When we spoke to Richards back in May, he noted the immense weight the role would carry if the backdoor pilot went forward. “carries as the first black gay male lead on network TV. “This will be the first black gay male lead on network TV,” he marveled. “There was that level of pride and it was feeling that beauty and that triumph going into it. And not only that, but to see us as in the sci-fi world, to see us intelligent, to know little queer boys will watch this — or girls or whoever — and feel inspired, seeing somebody that looks like them” is huge.

'Nancy Drew': Tian Richards Is the Perfectly Tailored Swift… Tom Swift, That Is

The series was co-created by the Nancy Drew crew of Melinda Hsu Taylor, Noga Landau, and Cameron Johnson, who will also serve as executive producers along with Josh Schwartz, Stephanie Savage, and Lis Rowinski.

A premiere date and time will be announced at a later time, but until then, you can get your #SwiftSquad together (safely) and stream the first two seasons of the creepy, addictive and so re-watchable Nancy Drew on HBO Max until then.