Thirst-trapping Actor Tian Richards Is Thrilled to be Cast as Gay, Black Billionaire Tom Swift

Up-and-coming actor Tian Richards was cast last week in the role of Tom Swift in an upcoming episode of the CW drama "Nancy Drew," Deadline reported. The good news for the hot actor is that the episode will serve as a backdoor pilot for a potential spin-off series. If that happens, Richards will continue in the role.

And he sweetly expressed his enthusiasm on Instagram: "It's happening! GOD, thank YOU! (Prayer emoji) This is a moment long worked for, long suffered for and long prepared for. So many are responsible for me getting here! And I THANK YOU from the depths of my spirits! Today has been beautifully overwhelming. I've screamed, cried, jumped, hollered, dropped to my knees and thanked the man upstairs. I am SO ready to pull up in Horseshoe Bay and get things poppin! (Smily face emoji) Tom Swift is unlike anything TV has seen before. To be young, gifted, Black, and Gay!(Followed by sci-fi emojis, a money bag and a rainbow.) Mommy look, we did it! We did it Joe!"

The new series is co-created by the team behind "Nancy Drew" – Melinda Hsu Taylor and Noga Landau, with Cameron Johnson – and will mark the appearance of another out character on prime time.

"We're excited about bringing a story that has both sci-fi but also Blackness, and joy, and pride, and love, and romance," Landau tells EW of the potential spin-off. "Something that I'm personally most excited about with Tom Swift is that it's going to be an epic cosmic romance that positions a queer Black man right in the middle of it as the object of desire and as the alpha male of the story. That's just so important to put on screen right now."

The series, according to Deadline, "follows the serialized adventures of its titular Black, gay, billionaire inventor (Richards) who is thrust into a world of sci-fi conspiracy and unexplained phenomena after the shocking disappearance of his father. 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."

Like the Nancy Drew books, which inspired The CW series, the Tom Swift book series hails from Stratemeyer Syndicate, which also publishes the Hardy Boys and Bobbsey Twins books, wrote Deadline in a related story.

The South Carolina native was most recently seen in "Burden" opposite Forest Whitaker, which was an official selection at the Sundance Film Festival. Additional credits include Netflix's "Dumplin'" with Jennifer Aniston, "Being Mary Jane," "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" and "A Bad Mom's Christmas." Little is known about his private life, but he does like to work out, as these pics from his Instagram can attest: