New details on the series adaptation of the bestseller “The Swarm”: The sci-fi thriller will not be shown on television until 2023.

For the first time, ZDF has given detailed insights into the series adaptation of the bestseller “The Swarm”. In Berlin, showrunner Frank Doelger (“Game of Thrones”), director Barbara Eder (46) and the technical advisor and polar and deep-sea researcher Prof. Dr. Antje Boetius (55) presents the work behind the camera for the elaborately produced series. ZDF announced that the eight-part sci-fi thriller will not be broadcast until spring 2023, and the series is currently in post-production.

A short trailer shows the first excerpts of the international co-production: In the 47 seconds you can see unusually aggressive whales in Canada, work in a laboratory, screaming people and a world in chaos. “The Swarm” is – based on the bestselling thriller by Frank Schätzing (65) – about mankind’s fight against an unknown swarm intelligence that lives in the sea. Man’s dealings with the oceans and the animals living in them threaten the collective – and it strikes back.

Series will be accompanied by documentaries in spring 2023

The series represents a new conception of the thriller: the storylines of the novel were updated and expanded by new ones by showrunner Frank Doelger and author Frank Schätzing. The last flap fell at the end of September 2021. Filming took place in Rome and Brussels, including in Europe’s largest water studio.

To draw attention to the importance of protecting the oceans, the series will be accompanied by documentaries in spring 2023. In a two-part back-to-back documentary, the content of the fictional series is to be classified scientifically, and a two-part “Terra X” deals with the behavior of swarms.

What is the series “The Swarm” about?

In various locations, scientists are increasingly exposed to attacks from the sea. Sigur Johanson (Alexander Karim, 46), who is asked by a Norwegian oil company for a biological report, discovers the dangerous ice worm alongside Tina Lund (Krista Kosonen, 39). The French molecular biologist Cécile Roche (Cécile de France, 46) struggles with a deadly bacterium in drinking water and the Canadian whale researcher Leon Anawak (Joshua Odjick) wants to explain the unusually dangerous behavior of the whales.

There are also marine biology student Charlie Wagner (Leonie Benesch, 31), who collects ocean current data for her professor Katherina Lehmann (Barbara Sukowa, 72) on the Shetland Islands, data analyst Alicia Delaware (Rosabell Laurenti Sellers, 26), space researcher Samantha Crowe (Sharon Duncan Brewster, 46) as well as student Amir (Eidin Jalali) and Japanese philanthropist Mifune (Takuya Kimura, 49). Alban (Oliver Masucci, 53), captain of the research ship Thorvaldson, and the diving robotics expert Roscovitz (Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, 38) embark on a daring mission into the eternal ice with the scientists.