Inde Navarrette is prepared to make another wish.
The breakout star of Obsession, the $750,000 horror movie that became one of the year’s biggest box-office surprises, says she would be happy to reprise her role as Nikki Freeman if there is a sequel.
“I would totally be open to doing a sequel,” Navarrette said in an episode recorded before about 500 students at Chapman University in Orange, California, during an interview with host Scott Feinberg on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast. “Are you kidding me? Who am I to say no?”
Asked where her character would be after the film’s brutal ending, Navarrette, 25, explained that Nikki was just beginning the grieving process. This mirrors the confusion people feel after something beyond their control, like losing a loved one or their sense of agency.
“She’s just starting the grief process,” she said.
Obsession tells the story of Bear, played by Michael Johnston, a shy young man who breaks the mysterious One Wish Willow and wishes that his friend Nikki loves him more than anyone else. The wish comes true, and Nikki becomes violent.
Navarrette’s comments mark a shift from earlier this year, when she said she thought the idea of telling a story that stands alone was cool. “I think the beautiful thing about it is that there is no sequel,” she had said during a Nylon magazine interview. “I think the beautiful thing about it is that there is no sequel.”
At the time, she also added that she would love to see Barker pursue an anthology where each story is based on a different wish.
Barker, 26, has hinted at his own plans. Last summer, The Hollywood Reporter learned he had a sequel idea that he kept under wraps and wasn’t in any rush to make. “I don’t want to go straight into Obsession 2,” he said.
Additionally, Barker has talked about making an anthology television series based on the One Wish Willow. He currently has a busy slate that includes the Blumhouse horror comedy Anything but Ghosts and a new Texas Chainsaw Massacre film for A24. His producer, James Harris, told Variety in June that he had not yet begun official talks for the sequel, as it depends on Barker’s availability.
No sequel has been announced.
Obsession premiered in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025, and Focus Features picked it up for an estimated $15 million. Made for about $750,000, it opened in theaters on May 15 and earned around $522 million worldwide, according to published reports.
In August, it became the first original film to exceed $500 million in global ticket sales in the 2020s, and it has become the most profitable movie ever made for less than $1 million. Furthermore, it represents the largest release in Focus Features’ history.
The role helped Navarrette become a contender in the awards season. She received a Critics Choice Super Award for Best Actress in a Horror Movie and won the Best Performance award at the Seattle International Film Festival. The studio is pushing hard for her Best Actress nod at the Oscars, as part of a larger effort to enter it in as many categories as possible.
Her calendar is quickly filling up. In August, at the D23 fan event organized by Disney, Marvel Studios announced that Navarrette will play Rogue in director Jake Schreier’s reboot of the mutant superhero franchise, which is set to open on May 5, 2028. She is also starring in the horror movie Invertigo.
