Gabrielle Union Joins Meredith Alloway’s ‘Forbidden Fruits’

EXCLUSIVE: Gabrielle Union (The Inspection) is the newest addition to the cast of Forbidden Fruits, the new genre film marking the feature directorial debut of Meredith Alloway.

Character details are under wraps. She joins an ensemble that also includes Lili Reinhart, Lola Tung, Victoria Pedretti, Alexandra Shipp, and Emma Chamberlain, as previously announced. The film is in production now and has been picked up for distribution in 2026 by IFC Films and Shudder, as we were first to report last month.

Based on Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die, the play by Lily Houghton, who wrote the script with Alloway, Forbidden Fruits follows Free Eden employee Apple, who secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.

Producer on the project include Mason Novick, Diablo Cody, Trent Hubbard, and Mary Anne Waterhouse. Charlie Traisman and Katherine Romans are exec producing for Madhouse Films, alongside Casey Durant and Rachel Douglas from Range Media Partners.

Recently, Union has garnered Gotham and Independent Spirit Award nominations for her starring turn opposite Jeremy Pope in Elegance Bratton’s A24 drama The Inspection, also starring opposite Octavia Spencer in Apple TV+’s Truth Be Told. Currently, she can be seen starring opposite the likes of Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Harris, and Bill Murray in Riff Raff, the crime comedy from Dito Montiel that premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival.

Next up, Union will be seen leading The Casket Girls, a new horror film from Get Out producer QC Entertainment. She is represented by Range, CAA, and attorney Patti Felker of Felker Toczek Suddleson.