Released in February 2019, Alita: Battle Angel left the door wide open for a second episode. If it has still not seen the light of day, fans do not despair of seeing the project reborn from its ashes, just like its director, Robert Rodriguez.
Alita: Battle Angel by Robert Rodriguez, airing tonight on TFX, is a post-apocalyptic film produced by James Cameron and starring Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz and Mahershala Ali.
Adapted from the manga Gunnmthe work quickly conquered a large group of aficionados, nicknamed the Alita Army, who constantly ask that a sequel be started with a lot of petitions.
It must be admitted that the end of the blockbuster foreshadowed that the adventures of its big-eyed heroine were far from over. Robert Rodriguez had even made the choice to sneak into the film characters embodied by stars (Edward Norton, Michelle Rodriguez and Jai Courtney) before giving them more substantial roles in a sequel, for which he always showed himself very enthusiastic.
The main actors have never hidden that they wanted to resume their roles in a second part. If so, why has it never seen the light of day?
FROM FOX TO DISNEY
If Alita did not pale at the box office, collecting 404 million dollars internationally, it had cost 170. It was therefore not that profitable. Moreover, its results on American soil (85.8 million) were rather disappointing.
The other problem with the film is that it was produced by Fox and that it was released right at the time of the studio’s takeover by Disney. A change of hand that did not help the project further.
In April 2020, Christoph Waltz had for example declared to Collider be “a little disappointed and surprised to have no news” and add: “It was Fox and it no longer exists. It’s Disney now. Maybe it doesn’t fit into the Disneyfication, but I have no idea.”
IS HOPE ALLOWED?
But if no Alita: Battle Angel 2 has been officially started, this does not mean that Robert Rodriguez has dropped the case. In December 2020, he notably mentioned Disney+ as a possible way to find the character.
In September 2021, at the microphone of The Nerdy Basement, the filmmaker, who works with Disney on the Star Wars series The Book of Bobba Fett, was once again enthusiastic about a return of the Motorball champion to the cinema.
“I hope I earn points with Disney by doing the same for them, because they own it now, they bought out Fox, and that’s why we couldn’t get into the sequel right away, because of all this history“, he recalled before sharing his battle plan:
I’m trying to see what’s going on with Boba Fett, I think it’s going to impress people, so when it happens, I’ll go and say, ok, I’ve been here for a while, let’s figure out how we can do Alita, whether it’s for streaming or theaters, because it’s such an awesome property, people love it, I love it, and James Cameron loves it.
“We talked about it again recently with Cameron, to find out how to do it, what is the best way to approach it. I think I’m going to go with him to talk about it, because I do a lot of things for Disney now“, he concluded.
We can only hope that the firm with the big ears is sensitive to the requests of the two directors! In the meantime, Rodriguez is working on the reboot of his Spy Kids saga.
The director has also found his new family of spies for the new version of his famous franchise of family adventures.
Gina Rodriguez and Zachary Levi will be the parents, supported by Everly Carganilla and Connor Esterson on the children’s side. The film will be released on Netflix.
When Robert Rodriguez makes James Cameron’s dream come true