‘Nancy Drew’ crew stars in new CW series

There are certain characters who burst onto the television screen and command attention from their very first scene, and it immediately becomes apparent that they deserve a series of their own. For fans of CW’s “Nancy Drew,” this is the case with Tom Swift (Tian Richards, “The Quad”), who leads his own selftitled series as of Tuesday, May 31, on the same network.

Audiences familiar with “Nancy Drew” will remember billionaire inventor Tom from his appearance in the Season 2 episode “The Celestial Visitor,” in which he enlists Nancy’s (Kennedy McMann, “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”) help to find the meteorite that crashed into their town 90 years earlier. The purely science-driven Tom quickly finds his beliefs tested as he encounters more than he bargained for in the form of the supernatural, but finds a friend in Nancy as well as the courage to come out to his father, Barton (played in “Tom Swift” by Christopher B. Duncan, “Black Lightning”).

Now it’s Tom’s turn to take the spotlight.

The character, who first appeared in the 1910 novel “Tom Swift and His Motor Cycle,” was first portrayed as a brilliant teenage inventor fascinated by the rapidly evolving science and technology of the times. Created by Edward Stratemeyer, whose publishing house also produced the Nancy Drew book series, the Tom Swift novels were written by many ghostwriters who published under the pseudonym Victor Appleton. To date, there are over 100 books featuring Tom and his son, Tom Swift Jr., the most recent of which was published in March 2022.

The upcoming series reimagines Tom as a gay Black man, a far cry from his first appearance as a straight white man over a century ago.

“The original Tom Swift was great for his time and what he represented,” Richards told TVLine last year. “At the time, that was the face of young boys, all-American kids full of possibilities. But in 2021, that can look so different. It can look like someone like me — a Black guy who is chocolate, who is queer, who is all those things that we’re told aren’t the normal or the status quo.”

This incarnation of Tom is an MIT-educated billionaire and future heir to his father’s empire, poised to one day take over Swift Enterprises. However, the brilliant inventor is thrown into a world of shadowy conspiracy after Barton vanishes. Tom becomes determined to find his father and uncover the web of mysteries surrounding his disappearance, many of which require him to leave his extravagant lifestyle behind and plunge deep into the unexplained.

Pursuing Tom throughout the series and throwing a wrench in his plans is a mysterious organization that will stop at nothing to keep him from discovering the truth. Needless to say, Tom will need all his considerable wits and genius to save the day and fight to keep the people he cares for safe.

Richards’ first professional acting role came in 2012, when he portrayed Elijah Patterson in an episode of the web series “The Lyons Den,” but it wasn’t until 2016 that he began to appear more regularly on the scene, with minor parts in an episode of the drama “Greenleaf” and “24: Legacy.” While he has most often appeared on the small screen, he briefly appeared in “A Bad Moms Christmas” (2017), which starred Mila Kunis (“That ‘70s Show”) and Kristen Bell (“Veronica Mars”). That same year, he played young Lawrence in the made-for-TV movie “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” (2017), which counts Oprah Winfrey (“The Oprah Winfrey Show”) among its cast.

Richards can also count Jennifer Aniston of “Friends” fame among his eminent co-stars, as they both appeared in the Golden Globe-nominated film “Dumplin’” (2018). He also starred as Drew in the 2019 short film “Interlude,” a 13-minute flick that won Best Short

Film at the 2020 Rhode Island International Film Festival. Later that year he also made an appearance as Daryl in an episode of the popular CBS sitcom “The Neighborhood.”

In “Tom Swift,” Richards is joined by a stellar supporting cast, including Ashleigh Murray (“Riverdale”) as Zenzi Fullerton, Tom’s best friend; Marquise Vilson (“Blindspot”) as bodyguard Isaac Vega; April Parker Jones (“Jericho”) as his mother, Lorraine Swift; and LeVar Burton (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”) as Barclay, his trusted AI.

Melinda Hsu Taylor (“Lost”), Noga Landau (“See”) and Cameron Johnson (“Empire”) serve as executive producers and writers alongside “Nancy Drew” co-creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Directors include Ruben Garcia (“Nancy Drew”), Michael A. Allowitz (“Dynasty”) and Clara Aranovich (“Stranger Things: Spotlight”).

Regardless of where Tom’s quest leads him — to the paranormal or the mundane — it’s clear that this fresh take on the character is in great hands with Richards, who put it best while talking to TVLine.

“Tom gets to exist in all of his beauty and pride,” Richards said. “He gets to grow up in a family with a legacy, to have endless possibilities in education and tech and inventing. He gets to realize himself for himself, and that’s beautiful for anyone to see.”

Catch the series premiere of “Tom Swift” when it airs Tuesday, May 31, on CW.

Tian Richards as Tom Swift in “Nancy Drew”