Tom Swift premieres on The CW May 31, offering a unique portrayal of the wealthy inventor who’s been the star of a book series dating back to 1910. Tian Richards plays Swift, who is thrust “into a breathtaking adventure full of mysterious conspiracies and unexplained phenomena,” according to The CW.
The show was co-created by Melinda Hsu Taylor, Noga Landau and Cameron Johnson. Johnson described the Tom Swift from the Stratemeyer Syndication book series as “a pretty white boy who invents things and changes the world.” The Tom Swift Tian Richards portrays is more like “a Black, gay Iron Man,” Johnson told B+C.
The character was introduced in season two of Nancy Drew.
“He’s funny, he’s smart, he’s acerbic — a lovely SAT word for kind of bitchy,” said Johnson. “He’s incredibly fashionable.”
The books hardly hold up in 2022, said the producers, including some racist moments. The producers hustled to make Swift right for our world today. “It’s how to tell the story now of a Black gay man,” said Landau.
Ashleigh Murray and Marquise Vilsón are also in the cast, and LeVar Burton is the voice of Barclay, Tom’s AI. “Our first choice,” is how Landau described Burton.
Taylor described the show as “relentlessly optimistic.”
“After 42 minutes, you feel better about humanity,” she said. “Ya know what, we could pull together and save the world.”
The producers looked at hundreds of Tom Swift hopefuls in auditions before finding Richards. “There were rounds and rounds and rounds and rounds of watching tapes and figuring it out,” said Johnson. Richards came in, he added, and the producers said, “That’s Tom Swift.”
What does Richards bring to the character? “He’s got that sunlight inside of him,” said Taylor. “He’s sweet and honest and bursting with enthusiasm.”
Johnson mentioned how Richards did some digging to figure out what makes Swift tick, including meeting with Black students at MIT and visiting SpaceX in Florida. “He really immersed himself in trying to understand that life,” Johnson said. ■
