It looks like the world of Nancy Drew is about to expand, as The CW have given spin-off series Tom Swift a straight-to-series order after the idea was first announced back in October 2020. In May this year, there were rumors that the series could be coming to the network, but fans have been left waiting to see if that was true or not. As it turns out, Tian Richards will be seen taking on the role of Swift in his own series, although there is not yet a premiere date available for when exactly the show will arrive.
The spin-off mystery series was given a “backdoor pilot” in the second season of Nancy Drew, when the billionaire inventor crashed one of Drew’s investigations. The episode was used as a gauge on how well the character would appeal to audiences and it looks like the reimagined take on the character was popular enough to get his own series straight out of the traps.
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It was reported back in October that the on screen version of Swift would be turning the character from the straight, white man of the original book series into a Black gay man in order to bring the character in a new era, and right from the start the character was defined by an on-screen kiss with Tunji Kasim’s Nick, who helped him come out as gay to his father. The series will now give the character the chance to develop fully on his own terms, and his first appearance was clearly an introduction that will lead into Swift’s main story.
Following the adventures of the inventor, Tom Swift sees the title character become embroiled in a world of science fiction conspiracies and phenomena following the disappearance of his father. As he heads out to find the truth, he must stay one step ahead of the Illuminati-styled group determined to stop him discovering the answers he is seeking. His first appearance in the Nancy Drew series also brought in Barclay, an artificial intelligence companion very much in the style of Tony Stark’s Jarvis in the Marvel world, voiced by LeVar Burton, who will also be back for the series.
Tom Swift will be written and executively produced by Melina Hsu Taylor and Noga Landau, who both branch out from their Nancy Drew duties, while the flagship show’s producers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are also on board. The series joins a number of other new shows announced for the new season on The CW, which includes DC series Naomi, All American: Homecoming, and The 4400 and Legends of the Hidden Temple, which both get new reboots. The only in-contention project that now has an uncertain future is the Powerpuff Girls live action reboot, which has had a pretty rough ride to even making a pilot episode, with sizable rewrites and the recent loss of one of its series leads putting that series in jeopardy of even making it to screen.
The Tom Swift series is expected to move forward at the usual pace, which would put a premier date sometime in late 2022.
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