It was an ambitious project: with a production cost of 170 million dollars, “Alita: Battle Angel” is the most expensive manga film adaptation of all time. A risk that did not pay off at the box office: the sci-fi actor was only able to gross just under $ 405 million worldwide. While that’s not a catastrophic result given the high cost of production, it’s also not a success that would prompt studio bosses to immediately greenlight a sequel.
Still, the reports of a possible sequel do not stop. On the one hand, this may be due to the fact that the film already freed its audience from the cinema hall with a small foretaste of future adventures – so at the end Edward Norton (“American History X”) was already revealed as the mysterious villain Nova. And second, because those responsible are huge fans of the manga themselves and seem to be really passionate about the idea of a sequel.
Lately, there have been signs of life for a possible “Alita: Battle Angel” sequel: Producer Jon Landau recently had an interview with reveal they are working on a sequel. And Robert Rodriguez has now given this statement even more weight. In an interview with the director of “Alita” stressed that there is still hope that “Alita: Battle Angel 2“has yet to be realized.
“Alita: Battle Angel 2”: Director and producers want the movie!
According to the director of the 2019 first installment, the project is still hotly debated between him and producers Jon Landau and “Avatar” director James Cameron, but there’s been no concrete progress to report:
“Yeah, we’ve talked about it, we’d love to do a sequel. Nothing is certain yet, but we keep hoping and talking about it a lot. She [James Cameron und Jon Landau] have been overwhelmed by all the “Avatar” stuff, but they sure got into it.
Material for two other parts is available
In an interview with the filmmaker also indicated that there would already be material for two more parts:
“[…] [James Cameron] and I talked about how we always wanted to make an ‘Alita’ sequel. He [James Cameron] has very thoroughly mapped out a second movie and a third movie, so there’s material for that already. So yes, we hope that will happen.“
In addition, we do not want to forget that Robert Rodriguez was already in a virtual interview at the beginning of “Avatar 2”. had already confirmed that they wanted to bring “Alita: Battle Angel 2” to the cinema together, and even sealed it with a virtual blood oath (!). We’ve included the video here again for you:
It remains to be seen how seriously the two great directors actually meant their virtual blood oath. The box office success of James Cameron’s “Avatar 2” could certainly contribute to a sequel being realized at Disney, as they are certainly still involved in a long-term collaboration and good relationship with the successful director and “Alita” – Producers interested.
And since he – like Rodriguez and Landau – still seems to be passionate about the project, it is at least possible that a sequel will hit theaters after all…