For well over a decade, Alita: Battle Angel looked as though it was going to become one of the many James Cameron projects the filmmaker would regularly talk up that never made it out of development hell, having spent so long in stasis at 20th Century Fox.
The filmmaker first signed on to direct the manga adaptation in April 2003, which he planned to be the first installment of a proposed trilogy. Ultimately, Cameron ended up embedding himself in the world of Pandora instead, and it looks as though he’ll be spending the rest of his career churning out Avatar sequels given that we’re 12 years removed from the original and there’s still another four to go.
Luckily, he decided to step away from the camera and hand the Alita: Battle Angel reins to Robert Rodriguez, remaining on board as a writer and producer. The movie may have disappointed at the box office after barely scraping past $400 million globally on a $170 million budget, but it instantly became a fan favorite and cult classic.
Ever since then, supporters have been running a sustained campaign to try and will a sequel into existence, with Rodriguez admitting that he’s hoping his continued involvement with Disney in the Star Wars sandbox may lead to the studio taking a closer look at more Alita: Battle Angel. For what it’s worth, audiences are clearly still enraptured, with the sci-fi epic playing incredibly well on Disney Plus all week, as per FlixPatrol.
