Back in February, we learned that the Alita: Battle Angel film was being shifted from July 20th, 2018 to December 21st, 2018. That puts it in direct competition with a lot of limited fare for the Oscar crowd that arrives during that period but also big films with Aquaman getting a strong push as the season hits as well as the Bumblebee spinoff from the Transformers franchise. With trailers for those films now out and the teaser we had for Alita before, Fox has now dropped a new trailer after the SDCC panel this weekend that highlighted the production. It shows off a lot more material from it though I imagine the core problems people had with the first trailer are still there.
The cast includes Rosa Salazar as Alita, Christoph Waltz as Doctor Dyson Ido, Jackie Earle Haley, Ed Skrein as Zapan, Keenan Johnson as Hugo, Mahershala Ali as Vector, Eiza Gonzalez, Jorge Lendeborg Jr, Lana Condor, Jennifer Connelly, Michelle Rodriguez and Leonard Wu. The film will be directed by Robert Rodriguez with James Cameron producing and collaborating on it.
This is still likely to keep the two anime OVAs out of distributors hands for quite some time to come unfortunately.
Plot concept: Set in the 26th century, Alita: Battle Angel tells of a female cyborg that is discovered in a trash yard by a scientist. With no memory of her previous life except her deadly martial arts training, the woman becomes a bounty hunter, tracking down criminals. The action-adventure story is meant to serve as a backdrop to themes of self-discovery and the search for love.
Previous trailer:
