The Alita: Battle Angel film landed back on February 14th, 2019 release date then saw a home video release on July 23rd, 2019 before heading to all sorts of VOD, streaming, and pay services. There have been a lot of whispers and nods about a potential sequence being in the works or some form of planning for awhile but there is nothing official at all yet. The film kind of operated like Pacific Rim in that it had a big budget of $170 million and did not break through theatrically as it had just $404 million worldwide when all was said and done. But with positive reviews, performances, and interest across multiple platforms since the theatrical side, and the possibility of theatrical being less key going forward post-pandemic, the interest in getting more of this done continues to be there.
We last talked about this seriously back in 2020 but there were a lot of things going on that impacted what was getting the go-ahead and Cameron working on the Avatar films. Now, in Forbes of all places, Cameron was talking about selling one of his homes where he did a lot of writing and changes he’s going through and mentioned that he’s going to be working on more films for this property when in Austin, Texas.
And on Avatar, I’m working in Wellington and Los Angeles. And on the new Alita: Battle Angel films, I’ll be working in Austin, so it just didn’t make sense for us (to live there) anymore.
So we take it as a potential hopeful hint of what’s to come, and with us going twenty years of wishing for a new release of the 90s OVA, we’re always hopeful when it comes to Alita.
Check out our review of the film.
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 was 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.
