Why Edward Norton Rejected One Of The Biggest Sci-Fi Hits Of All Time

Edward Norton is reportedly friends with filmmaker James Cameron, but they've only worked together on a film once: "Alita: Battle Angel," which Cameron wrote and produced and in which Norton made a cameo. Cameron also offered Norton a chance to be in "Avatar: The Way of Water" — so why did Norton pass up the chance to visit Pandora?

I still hold out hope for an "Alita" sequel — me and the entire so-called "Alita army." The first film was a pleasant surprise and there's plenty more of Yukito Kishiro's "Battle Angel" manga to adapt. The film teased that Alita (Rosa Salazar) would finally come face-to-face with Desty Nova (Norton's character), her flan-loving mad scientist nemesis.

In 2019, "Alita" director Robert Rodriguez discussed Norton's casting in an interview with Digital Spy: "[Cameron and I] both knew Ed. Neither of us had worked with Ed. But Ed's really smart. Like Jim, he's very, very smart." While Norton only appears as Nova in a few brief shots, his casting underlines the character's importance. Norton is not only an A-list actor, he's also believable as the smartest person in the world. Rian Johnson cleverly toyed with Norton's screen presence casting him as the faux-genius tech billionaire Miles Bron in "Glass Onion" 

"Alita" was a passion project for James Cameron. First introduced to Kishiro's manga in the 1990s by Guillermo del Toro, Cameron spent many years trying to adapt it into a movie. But he ultimately had to choose between directing "The Way of Water" and "Alita," and so he left the latter in Rodriguez's hands. Then he tried to get Norton to join his other sci-fi blockbuster, but the actor drew a firm line in the sand. Norton explained in a 2019 interview with Total Film:

"I am friends with Jim [Cameron], and actually enormously admire and kind of adore him. So when he wanted me to do something in 'Avatar 2,' I basically told him, 'If I'm not a Na'vi, I'm not doing it. I'm not being part of the industrial world, coming in to destroy Pandora. I'm either a Na'vi or nothing.'"

I have a feeling that Norton doesn't just "admire" Cameron for his films. Both men are some of the loudest environmentalists in Hollywood. Cameron is especially passionate about ocean conservation (he moonlights as an undersea explorer) and has described his veganism as a political act, chipping in to reduce reliance on the carbon emitting, resource draining meat industry. Norton (whose father was an environmental lawyer) was also appointed by the United Nations as a Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity.

The "Avatar" films are strongly pro-environment and opposed to the military-industrial complex. In the two movies released so far, humanity is the villain; we've already ruined Earth and now we want to destroy another natural paradise with colonization and industrialization. Of course Norton prefers the Na'vi, given that his own political views are so close to Cameron's on this issue.

Now, obviously Cameron couldn't fit Norton in as a Na'vi in "The Way of Water." The third "Avatar" film — "Fire & Ash" — is also scheduled to premiere this coming December, so probably not enough time to add Norton there either. But Cameron has already written at least two more "Avatar" films, with ideas up to "Avatar 7." Surely he can make room for a Na'vi Ed Norton in one of these films? I can only wonder, though, how these two very similar men (both passionate artists and control freaks) would work together on set. Would Cameron be more accepting of Norton's input than Marvel Studios was on "The Incredible Hulk"? Like the fate of that "Alita" sequel, it could go either way.