Alita: Battle Angel was supposed to be James Cameron’s next big franchise. Yet despite positive reviews, the long-awaited film underperformed domestically. The movie did gangbusters overseas, though, which means that the possibility of sequels is not completely off the table. In fact, if Rosa Salazar has her way, the series will continue for as long as she’s on this earth.
“I would play Alita ’til my last breath,” she says. “I would, and thanks to the performance capture technology, I probably could.”
The 34-year-old actress who portrayed the titular character onscreen is clearly game for future installments alongside the stellar cast. Whether or not the studio feels the same way though remains to be seen.
The original film cost $170 million to make and only managed to pull in $85 million domestically. The saving grace that prevented the project from being labeled as a colossal flop was the total gross overseas. When all was said and done abroad, Alita: Battle Angel netted over $404 million worldwide.
While these numbers could’ve encouraged the previous regime to move forward with sequels, the franchise’s new owners might be more reluctant. Disney has now taken over all of 20th Century Fox’s cinematic intellectual properties, which includes Alita: Battle Angel. They’ve been mum so far on the likelihood of more installments and Salazar knows that she should let the dust settle before bringing it up.
“Yeah, I mean, they had a crazy merger. People are gaining jobs, people are losing jobs. The whole Disney/Fox acquisition is so involved, this isn’t the right time for me to call Alan Horn and be like, ‘Hey bro, I know you got a lotta stuff going on, but like what about Alita 2?’”
In the meantime, the actress is encouraging fans to show their support for the movie by picking up Blu-ray editions of the original. If enough people prove that they want to see a sequel, the studio will likely get behind it. As long as the public shows as much interest in potential follow-ups as Salazar, the series could very well still be James Cameron’s next big thing.
Alita: Battle Angel can currently be found on Blu-ray both in stores and online, so be sure to grab a copy if you haven’t done so already.