‘Obsession’ Star Inde Navarrette Lands Her Wildest Role Yet in Apple’s Sci-Fi Thriller ‘The Waffle House Index’

Breakout stardom rarely comes with a slow ramp-up, and Inde Navarrette’s summer has proven exactly that point. After stealing scenes in one of the year’s biggest surprise horror hits, the actress has spent the past few months rapidly assembling a slate that would make even seasoned Hollywood veterans envious.

Navarrette first broke through with her role in “Obsession,” Focus Features’ highest-grossing movie ever with more than $224 million worldwide, before recently landing the coveted role of Rogue in Marvel’s upcoming “X-Men” reboot. That momentum has now carried her into an entirely different genre lane, one built around a real-world phenomenon most people have never thought to turn into a movie.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Navarrette has been cast as the lead in “The Waffle House Index,” a sci-fi thriller package just picked up by Apple Original Films. The actress will also serve as an executive producer on the project alongside her starring role.

The film takes its title from an actual, informal measurement used to gauge a hurricane’s severity based on whether local Waffle House locations remain open during a storm. According to Bloody Disgusting, the restaurant chain’s own website explains the system directly: green means the restaurant is serving a full menu and damage is limited, yellow signals a limited menu running on generator power, and red means the location has closed entirely due to severe damage or unsafe conditions.

Written by Andrew Nunnelly and featured on the 2025 Black List, the script follows a Waffle House waitress whose already difficult night shift spirals dramatically out of control. According to Deadline, the story begins when a stranger with a gun shows up during her shift, and from there escalates into a mass flood, killer crocodiles, a nuclear explosion, a magical bunker beneath the restaurant, and, eventually, aliens.

That escalating chaos gives the film an unusually chaotic tonal identity, blending grounded Southern disaster-movie tropes with increasingly absurd genre elements. Louis Paxton, whose credits include the 2026 Sundance NEXT Innovator Award-winning “The Incomer,” is attached to direct the project.

“The Waffle House Index” marks the latest collaboration between Apple and Plan B, the production company led by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Plan B was also behind Pitt’s racing drama “F1,” and the company recently produced the horror film “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” while currently prepping Sarah Polley’s upcoming drama “The Bell Jar.”

That partnership signals continued investment from Apple in genre-bending original films, giving Navarrette a high-profile platform to showcase range beyond her breakout horror role. With full plot details still largely under wraps beyond the Black List logline, anticipation is likely to build steadily as more information about the production emerges.

Navarrette’s career trajectory has moved at a striking pace since her debut as Estela De La Cruz in the fourth and final season of Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why,” followed by an appearance on the CW’s “Superman & Lois.” Between her “X-Men” casting and now this Apple thriller, the actress has firmly established herself as one of the industry’s most sought-after rising talents this year.

With “The Waffle House Index” adding yet another eclectic project to her rapidly expanding résumé, Navarrette’s ability to juggle blockbuster franchise work alongside genre-bending original films suggests her breakout moment is far from a one-off.

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