MOVIE NEWS – Director Robert Rodriguez has expressed optimism about his plans for Alita 2 after it was hinted that negotiations are underway for a sequel.

Director Robert Rodriguez remains hopeful that plans for Alita 2 are going well after producer Jon Landau recently commented on the project. The 2019 live-action Alita: Battle Angel, based on the Japanese manga by Yukito Kishiro, was initially slated to have multiple sequels. But those plans were later called into question after Disney acquired 20th Century Fox. However, hopes for a sequel to the series have recently been rekindled. Landau has hinted that he actively talks with Rodriguez and star Rosa Salazar about a possible sequel.

In an interview with Collider, Rodriguez confessed that he was initially unsure that there would ever be a sequel but then revealed that the progress of other Fox projects has raised his hopes for a return.

However, he confirms that negotiations are ongoing. No more concrete news than that for now, but he remains hopeful. As the director put it:

“You know, I just wasn’t sure it was ever gonna happen because even when the first movie came out, Disney had just bought Fox, so even our marketing people, everybody, were gone by the time that movie came out. And then there wasn’t any Fox movies being made for years because Disney was still busy making their own Disney stuff. But now I’ve seen some Fox movies come out, so that gave me hope. And then when Jon [Landau, producer] mentioned that, and then [James Cameron] and I have been talking that we always wanted to do an ‘Alita’ sequel. He outlined, very thoroughly, a second and a third film, so there’s already material there. So yeah, we’re hoping that that will happen. But nothing more definitive than that.”

Why does Disney need to speed up development on Alita 2?

Alita: Battle Angel, which grossed more than $404 million worldwide, not only introduced a whole new audience to one of the most revered manga series of all time but is widely regarded as one of the best live-action manga adaptations of its time.

However, as the first film only covered a small part of the original nine-volume story, there is still a lot of material left to be discovered in the Alita universe.

Disney is already looking to maximise the potential of its other major franchises. Alita: Battle Angel has both the source material and the audience appeal. This is what it needs to make it another highly profitable IP. Moreover, given the unprecedented success of Cameron’s other passion project, Avatar: The Way of Water, the studio would be wise to follow the legendary filmmaker’s instincts.

Source: Collider