Last year’s Alita: Battle Angel was a satisfactory adaptation of the Battle Angel Alita franchise, although it wasn’t really a one-to-one translation of the story from the pages of the manga. This was no doubt done to accommodate a series of sequels set within the universe that would be free to explore their own narrative beats.
While no follow-up has been announced just yet, the film certainly has a devout fanbase, one that really wants a sequel to see the light of day. And more recently, fans have also been doing some hypothetical casting work of their own.
Black Panther star Danai Gurira, who plays Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje, in the MCU is a fan-favorite choice to portray the role of Motorball competitor Zafal Takié. Going by the competition nickname of Crimson Wind, she’s one of the fastest and most agile participants in the sport. And we even got a sneak peek of the character in action in the movie, as pointed out by the Alita Army Twitter post below.
Crimson Wind can be seen in action briefly in Alita: Battle Angel. We can hope this cameo is setting up for a bigger role in a sequel.
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/eUf0ZUs6Sa
— The #AlitaArmy 🍊🍫⚔♥ (@AlitaArmy) August 7, 2020
The tweet was just one of many posts celebrating the actor as part of “Danai Gurira Appreciation Day.” And while we would love to see her play the part of Takié in the Alita sequel, the role would need to be drastically changed from the one in the graphic novel. And that’s because the character has no dialogue in the source material at all.
Robert Rodriguez and James Cameron have definitely nailed the aesthetic of the cyberpunk universe, making it look visually stunning and truly organic. As such, it’d be fantastic to jump into that world again, but a big screen sequel might be an uphill battle considering that Alita: Battle Angel wasn’t exactly a box office hit. Not to mention that getting Fox to even sign on to the first one was no easy task. The fandom did get a glimmer of hope recently in the form a cryptic tweet, but it’s probably best not to get our hopes up just yet.
