Hollywood is littered with promised sequels that never come to fruition. There’s a small window of time when the follow up to a beloved movie can get a coveted greenlight. And while it may seem like the widow has closed on a sequel to Robert Rodriguez’s sci-fi/manga adaptation Alita: Battle Angel, lead actress Rosa Salazar tells CinemaBlend that’s not the case, she still wants to return, and the key principles continue to fight hard to get that story rolling.
Rosa Salazar stopped by CinemaBlend’s media suite at the WonderCon fest in Anaheim, California over the weekend to talk about the upcoming second season of Undone, a popular Amazon Prime Video show. During our conversation, we asked her about any updates on Alita 2, and if she has talked to either James Cameron or Robert Rodriguez about it. As it turns out, they do more than talk about Alita 2. Salazar told us:
I harass them all the time. Like, it might become a legal issue soon. I email with James Cameron a lot. … And he's always like, ‘I'm so down.’ Which is crazy to hear someone like James Cameron be like, ‘I'm so down!’ When we were in South by Southwest, I went over to Robert (Rodriguez)'s house and had tea, and was just talking about Alita. All three of us have so much love for it. It’s never outside of our line of vision, ever. Everything we do, we're just sort of like, ‘How do we get back there?’ … We're trying like hell to get her back out there because we know how much, just like (Undone), her story means so much to women, to young girls, to boys, to everybody. I think she represents something that transcends race, gender, all of that. So we're working on it, man!
That has to be good news for die-hard Alita: Battle Angel fans who use social media as a tool to pitch sequels for Rosa Salazar, wanting to see more stories set in this world. It would be very easy for Salazar to admit that she doesn’t see a sequel happening. And she’s very aware of the popularity of this character and her movie in dedicated circles. So fans can and should take comfort in the notion that James Cameron is ready to go – once he stops working on Pandora for the series of upcoming Avatar films – and that Rosa Salazar and Robert Rodriguez still discuss Alita sequels when they are getting together for tea.
That’s not to say these three aren’t busy. As mentioned, Salazar is making the press rounds on behalf of the second season of Amazon Prime Video’s Undone. Robert Rodriguez recently directed episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, and likely has a hand in the relaunched version of his Spy Kids franchise. For now, we will stick a pin in Alita 2, continue to track the sequel’s (very slow) progress, and wait for that day when Disney announces that they are ready to move forward with stories in that world. Because the first movie ended on a major cliffhanger, and I really want to see what happens next. Don’t you?
