James Cameron may have a small filmography compared to his peers, but the guy is always working. He’s spent the last decade working on the Avatar franchise, and if the critical and commercial success of Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) is anything to go by, we’d say he’s absolutely killing it.
Cameron recently sold his California mansion, and when asked about the sale by Forbes, the writer/director revealed that he would be spending too much time making films in other states. He referenced the upcoming Avatar films, which the studio already confirmed, but he also revealed that he’s working on sequels to the 2019 blockbuster Alita: Battle Angel.
“[I’ll be working] on Avatar, I’m working in Wellington and Los Angeles,” Cameron told the outlet. “And on the new Alita: Battle Angel films, I’ll be working in Austin, so it just didn’t make sense for us anymore.”
You’re not alone if you’re unfamiliar with Alita: Battle Angel. The film earned positive reviews from critics, with many praising the creativity of producer Cameron and director Robert Rodriguez, but it underperformed at the box office. The film earned $405 million, making it Rodriguez’s highest-grossing release to date, but the whopping $200 million budget meant it failed to turn a profit. Deadline reported that Alita: Battle Angel could have lost as much as $53 million for 20th Century Fox.
Has Alita: Battle Angel 2 been confirmed?
Needless to say, the film’s chances of becoming a proper franchise were low. Cameron and Rodriguez kept pushing, though, and discussed their plans for future Alita films if they ever could make them. Rodriguez confirmed that he wanted to make a trilogy of films during an interview with Inverse. “Jim’s outline was very detailed because he was going to make these himself: three movies,” he explained. “So I would love to go and do it.”
Cameron confirmed the plan when he told the BBC his proposed sequel titles: “The next one will be Alita: Fallen Angel and then Alita… you know Avenging Angel and then Alita whatever.” That was back in 2019. It’s unclear what transpired in the years since, but Rodriguez and Cameron were somehow able to secure a green light because the latter will be spending time working on the sequels in Rodriguez’s home state of Texas. The release date and/or additional details have not been revealed yet.
Alita has been a passion of Cameron’s since 2000. He was introduced to the source material by fellow director Guillermo del Toro and announced his plans to make a film adaptation as early as 2003. However, the film wound up being sidelined so that Cameron could focus on making Avatar (2009). Avatar became the primary concern for the director in the 2010s, which led to him passing the reins off to Rodriguez and relegating himself to producer and co-writer.
If we had to infer why the Alita sequels were green-lit by 20th Century Fox, we’d point to the success, as mentioned earlier, of Avatar: The Way of Water. Cameron proved he could turn a belated sequel into one of the ten highest-grossing films of all time, so it makes sense to roll the dice with the director’s other passion project. We can’t wait to see what he and Rodriguez have in store.
