Producer Jon Landau Has A Pretty Good Reason Why Alita: Battle Angel Hasn't Gotten A Sequel Yet
How much have you thought about a little movie called "Alita: Battle Angel"? Your answer to that question likely depends on the amount of time you spend online.
At the time, the Robert Rodriguez-directed blockbuster didn't exactly light the box office on fire, relying heavily upon international grosses to make up for a seeming lack of interest domestically — but never quite managing to make enough of a profit to offset the film's reported budget (which means it's likely even higher, in reality) of $170 million. Combined with the subsequent takeover of 20th Century Fox by Disney, prospects of a sequel to the film based on Yukito Kishiro's manga series "Battle Angel Alita" and starring Rosa Salazar as the impossibly wide-eyed lead have always appeared dim, at best. But simply look up the hashtag #AlitaArmy on Twitter and you're likely to find a deluge of fan-art, sequel demands, and other sorts of appreciation for the movie that all but came and went back in 2019.
Yet recently, after years of nothing but rumors and faint hopes, the release of another little indie called "Avatar: The Way of Water" has led to some encouraging news on that front. Now, we're hearing about why development on another "Alita" film has taken so long, especially after the rather bold choice to end the original movie on such a blatantly sequel-bait note. As it turns out, fans eager for more of Alita's adventures simply needed to trust the process and wait their turn after James Cameron finally got his long-delayed "Avatar" sequel(s) off the ground.
'It's something that we still want to happen'
For those of us cursed with the inability to effectively multitask, the following quote should feel quite cathartic.
James Cameron's involvement with "Alita: Battle Angel" goes way back to before the year 2005, where (as /Film's Ryan Scott explains in a recent edition of his Tales From the Box Office series) the "Avatar" filmmaker explained that he essentially had to choose between committing his vast resources to either the world of Pandora or the effort of bringing Alita to life. He chose "Avatar" and, well, the rest is history. Robert Rodriguez was instead brought in to make a film worthy of Cameron himself. But as the film gods would have it, Cameron wasn't done affecting the production of the "Alita" franchise just yet.
In an interview with Collider, "Avatar: The Way of Water" and "Alita: Battle Angel" producer Jon Landau explained why the sequel for "Alita" has taken (and continues to take) some time to fully come together:
"We want to do it. But, we're also the type of people, we give 110% of ourselves to whatever we do. It's not something we could have focused on in the midst of 'Avatar: Way of Water.' It's something that, a couple of weeks ago, I was talking to Robert. We've had numerous conversations. So it's something that we still want to happen."
Clearly, interest remains among both the creatives and a vocal segment of (very online) fans who would love to see more of Alita's bug-eyed wonder and canine-blooded war paint (look, I could explain it but it's ... a lot) in future installments down the line with Rosa Salazar reprising her VFX-heavy lead role. Maybe "Alita 2" will someday debut alongside the fourth or fifth "Avatar" movie. Wouldn't that be something?