App crashes if setBoolean called on initial screen

[Nezz]

Description

The first component we display calls setBoolean on mount:

  useEffect(() => {
    riveRef.current?.setBoolean('isFocused', isFocused);
  }, [isFocused]);

This causes the app to crash on iOS here:

rive-react-native/ios/RiveReactNativeViewManager.swift

Line 116 in fb83d70

let component = self.bridge.uiManager.view(forReactTag: node) as! RiveReactNativeView

rive_react_native/RiveReactNativeViewManager.swift:116: Fatal error: Unexpectedly found nil while unwrapping an Optional value

Provide a Repro

export default function InitialComponent() {
  const [isFocused, setIsFocused] = useState(false);
  const riveRef = useRef<RiveRef>(null);

  useEffect(() => {
    riveRef.current?.setBoolean('isFocused', isFocused);
  }, [isFocused]);

  return (
    <Rive
      url="<somethign from the internet>"
      autoplay
      fit={Fit.Cover}
      style={StyleSheet.absoluteFillObject}
      ref={riveRef}
      dataBinding={AutoBind(true)}
    />
  );
}

Source .riv/.rev file

Not animation-specific

Expected behavior

The app should not crash

Screenshots

Not applicable

Device & Versions (please complete the following information)

• Device: iPhone 17 Pro
• OS: iOS 26.0.1
• NPM Version: 10.9.3

Additional context