Inde Navarrette Lands 'SNL' Host Slot and Rogue Role in MCU's 'X-Men'

Inde Navarrette will host the Halloween episode of "Saturday Night Live" this year with musical guest Gracie Abrams — one of two major commitments the "Obsession" star confirmed at the Newport Beach Film Festival on Sunday.

The previous night, Navarrette walked the Academy Museum Gala. She described the evening to Variety's Marc Malkin as "amazing" and admitted the room left her reeling.

"I mean, you're just overwhelmed and kind of drowning in everybody that you have looked up to, possibly ever, and it's just so lovely meeting people and the reception that 'Obsession' has been getting… I'm just so honored to go and be with the members of the Academy and just get an inside scoop on what that magnificent world is like," she said.

Jessica Lange and Pamela Anderson topped her list of encounters. "I spoke to Jessica Lange, who is an icon," Navarrette said. Of Anderson, she added: "[And] the way that Pamela carries herself with such grace and honesty and just pure creativity and love is just exactly who I want to be."

The festival, which runs until Thursday in Newport Beach, honored Navarrette as one of Variety's 10 Actors to Watch at its Honor Brunch. That designation has tracked rising talent for years, and the weekend made its logic visible: one gala, one festival tribute, two franchise-scale jobs on the slate.

What does the 'SNL' hosting slot change?

For a actor still introducing herself to mass audiences, hosting "SNL" is a visibility event of a different order than a festival brunch. Navarrette herself treated it with a kind of disbelief.

"I literally I feel like I snuck in," she joked. "I'm super excited to keep everything under wraps because I really truly want to make this super fun for the audience. And what I love is when I don't know anything. So I'm really excited to be working with the writers."

She did not specify what sketches or formats the episode will use — unsurprising, given the show's habit of locking material until broadcast. The audience will learn the shape of the episode when everyone else does.

Rogue, Anna Paquin and the gym

The second commitment is larger in scale: Navarrette will play Rogue in the MCU's forthcoming "X-Men" film, taking over a role Anna Paquin originated in the earlier film cycle. Navarrette told Malkin she has not corresponded directly with Paquin.

Instead, she located the connection further back. "The correspondence started when I was younger, when I really fell in love with the 'X-Men' movies in the first place," she said.

On stunt training, she was blunt about her motivations: "I've always wanted to take part in that sort of a thing. I think it's also a really good excuse to get in the gym. I'm the laziest person, and I am very excited to get up and move my body."

Neither Marvel nor Navarrette gave a shooting date or release window for the film, and the "SNL" episode's air date was not announced beyond the Halloween billing. What is certain: between now and the Rogue shoot, Navarrette's calendar — by her own account — is not slowing down.

By Tom Whitfield