All of the updates we’ve gotten on the Alita: Battle Angel sequel have been pretty positive, and it seems like the film is getting close to actually happening. However, the project still has yet to receive that official green light, but that might change soon as the smoke has cleared from the Disney and Fox merger. During a recent interview with The Wrap, director Robert Rodriguez said:
“Yeah, Jim [Cameron] and I always talk about how we’d love to do another Alita. That studio [20th Century] was bought by another studio [Disney]. They’re starting to make movies now. But that for a while 20th Century wasn’t making any of their movies. I think now you’re seeing a few rolling out. We would love to.”
The last update we had on the film came from James Cameron himself, who said that they were planning multiple sequels, which would be great if it actually happened! I just hate that we’ve had to wait so long for this sequel to get made.
Producer Jon Landau previously talked about the sequel saying, “We’re working on it,” and shared: “We’re very excited about that prospect. Alita is a movie that even now having recently like re-watched it for what we had, we’re really proud of that movie. And we think that there are more stories to tell with her character and that’s why we want to go back to it.”
The producer also explained that when they do make the movie, they will utilize the filmmaking technology that was created to help bring Avatar 2: The Way of Water to life: “I think what we’ve learned from Avatar is how much more facial nuance and subtlety that we can get into characters that we want to be emotional and emote that are humanoid. Alita would not have been possible, but for what we did on Avatar. Avatar: Way of Water would not be what it is but what we did for Alita. And now let’s put that back and give it back to Alita. We’re talking to Robert and talking to Rosa and all is good.”
The film is based on the manga series Gunnm by Yukito Kishiro. The story is set several centuries in the future, the abandoned Alita is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Ido, a compassionate cyber-doctor who takes the unconscious cyborg Alita to his clinic. When Alita awakens, she has no memory of who she is, nor does she have any recognition of the world she finds herself in. As Alita learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of Iron City, Ido tries to shield her from her mysterious past.
Cameron and Rodgriguez initially planned out a trilogy of films, and Cameron has written over a thousand pages of notes that would cover that entire story. I really want to see that story brought to life, so I hope this creative team gets the opportunity to do that.
