Marvel Is About To Ruin Hollywood’s Best New Actress

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 21 seconds ago

Obsession is an amazing film for many reasons. This includes director Curry Barker, who parlayed his experience as a YouTube filmmaker into becoming one of Hollywood’s hottest new directors. It also includes Michael Johnston, whose performance as Bear helps him fully straddle the line between sympathetic protagonist and not-so-secret villain. However, it’s an open secret that the best part of Obsession is breakout star Inde Navarette, who plays Nikki. She can delight and terrify with a single change of her facial expression in a performance that might as well be a magic trick. One moment, she’s the cute girl next door; the next moment, she’s the scariest thing you’ve ever seen.

After Obsession became a massive hit (one that beat heavy hitters like The Mandalorian and Grogu and Supergirl at the box office), everyone had the same question: “what will Navarette do next?” Now, we may have the answer, and it’s more frightening than anything in her hit horror film. In a recent interview, she indicated that she’d like to star in a Marvel movie, and she even met with Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier, who is working on his upcoming X-Men film. For a young actor, becoming a Marvel mainstay is the opportunity of a lifetime. Realistically, though, this would ruin her career by tying her to a decade or more of making superhero slop.

A Scar Is Born

Recently, Obsession star Inde Navarette gave an interview to Nylon, one which covered much of the actor’s career. Eventually, they spoke about her future ambitions, and the outlet asked the actor if she’d like to star in a Marvel film. Her response? “I would.” When the outlet asked about dream directors she’d love to work with, Navarette mentioned Jake Schreier, who is poised to become one of Marvel’s biggest movers and shakers. He has already made the critically beloved The Thunderbolts, and he’s going to be directing the first X-Men movie for the MCU.

To be clear, Inde Navarette has not been officially offered any contract with Marvel, and it may simply be a coincidence that she wants to star in this cinematic universe and met one of its biggest directors. However, nobody can deny that getting this Obsession star into his X-Men movie would be a major coup for Schreier. Previously, MCU guru Kevin Feige confirmed that the X-Men movie will have a young cast to appeal to “a younger demographic.” At 25 years old and insanely popular, Navarrette would be the perfect addition to this upcoming mutant movie. Unfortunately, that might very well sabotage her career in the long term.

Marvel’s Latest Heroine?

Why is that? In that same Nylon interview, she discussed her desire to prove that she’s not some one-hit wonder. “I really want to prove that Obsession wasn’t just lightning in a bottle,” she said. “This is something that I really love and want to continue doing, but of course that’s going to take time. I want people to take that time to trust that I have that capability.” In other words, she wants to take on more challenging roles and prove she can keep rising to the occasion. But that will never happen if she signs a contract with Marvel.

That’s because, for bigger actors taking on bigger roles, Marvel Studios notoriously makes these performers sign 10-year contracts. That’s enough time, the thinking goes, to have them headline at least three of their own films and appear in any number of Avengers-style crossovers. Right now, Inde Navarrette is riding high from the insane success of Obsession, and she’s eager to take on meatier roles (case in point, she also met recently with Heat director Michael Mann). But she won’t really have time to star in other breakout indie hits or explosive dramas if she is tied down to at least a decade of making superhero slop.

Be Careful What You Wish For

Even if you’re a huge Marvel fan (got your tickets for Spider-Man: Brand New Day yet, true believer?), it’s an open secret that audiences will always see these tights-and-flights actors as their characters, keeping them from landing great future gigs. For example, the biggest thing Chris Evans has been in since Avengers: Endgame is Knives Out, and the only notable thing Robert Downey Jr. has been in since then is Oppenheimer. Sure, they’re both richer than God, but they’re not getting very many good roles, forcing them to reluctantly crawl back to the franchise that turned them into the most popular actors of the modern age.

That’s my big message to Inde Navarrette (you are reading this, right?): for all intents and purposes, you now have a One Wish Willow in your hand, and you’re in danger of experiencing how bad this monkey’s paw can get. Yes, becoming a Marvel star will make you richer and more famous than ever before, but it comes at the expense of ever acting in anything remotely interesting ever again. Navarrette became an internationally cherished actor thanks to a movie about a toy purchase gone wrong; only time will tell if she’s going to throw all that away just so she can become an action figure.