When Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel released to theaters in 2019, it was actually the result of a decades-long creative process. Cameron had been attempting to cinematically adapt Yukito Kishiro ‘90s manga titled Battle Angel Alita since well before he made the first Avatar in 2009. For years, it was the billion-dollar-filmmaker’s plan to make the film adaptation of Kishiro’s story himself. However, once he got wrapped up in making Avatar and subsequently following it up with a series of sequels, he realized that time was running out. Thus, Cameron brought in a filmmaker he trusted to help him see it through to fruition, in the form of writer-director Robert Rodriguez.
Known for eclectic films such as Desperado, Spy Kids, and Planet Terror, Rodriguez took to Alita like a fish takes to water. In many ways, the film played like a culmination of all of Rodriguez’s seemingly disparate interests, blending together into a single, massive blockbuster that was able to feel equal parts his own and authentically James Cameron’s as well. In these ways, Alita: Battle Angel was a creative triumph, even if it was only a moderate financial success.
However, that has not stopped plans for a proposed sequel, as Cameron himself recently doubled down and all-but-confirmed: an Alita: Battle Angel sequel will happen, if he has anything to say about it.
James Cameron is currently doing the press rounds as he prepares to unleash the third Avatar film, Fire & Ash, upon the world. As such, he is fielding a litany of questions from folks about future Avatar installments, his opinions on AI, and about the state of modern filmmaking at large. But in an interview with Empire, the director was also asked about the potential for something he has long been passionate about; a sequel to Alita: Battle Angel.
Cameron was quick to respond, “I appreciate the loyalty of the Alita fans. Robert Rodriguez and I have sworn a blood oath to do at least one more Alita movie. In fact, we’re thinking of an architecture that bridges to a third film, but we’ll be satisfied if we can make one more. And we’re making progress on that.”
It’s no real surprise that Cameron is still thinking about making Alita sequels after all these years; every sequel the filmmaker has ever made has been belated, in one way or another. Aliens released seven years after Alien, Terminator 2 released seven years after The Terminator, and Avatar: The Way of Water released a whopping thirteen years after Avatar. That makes the six years since the first Alita film sound like no time at all, and Cameron and Rodriguez are both clearly passionate about doing it.
In the filmmaking world, James Cameron gets what James Cameron wants. He has spoken before about what a great time he had collaborating with Rodriguez during the making of the first film (as opposed to other collaborations, such as with Tim Miller on Terminator: Dark Fate that same year, which was quite tumultuous) and he wants to do it at least one more time, if not two more. So in a few years time, don’t be surprised to see at least one sequel to Alita: Battle Angel.