While he went uncredited in his role for director Robert Rodriguez’ Alita: Battle Angel, actor Jai Courtney’s participation in the role of Motorball athlete Jashugan was predicated on one simple premise.Courtney’s moments on screen were short and sweet in this first film, but Rodriguez possibly wanted someone he could trust to play the role in a more major context in a possible sequel. It’s this knowledge that has fans of Alita: Battle Angel all fired up, after seeing Jai Courtney posting the following motion capture photo, with a pretty cryptic caption:
Sharing this interesting look on Instagram, along with a mention of trying on some new rollerblades for this mystery project, it wasn’t long before people started connecting the imaginary dots. Surely, if Jai Courtney is back on rollerblades and in a mocap get up, this could be at the very least part of a pitch reel for Alita: Fallen Angel, right? Those promises of new action being fulfilled would make for a good start, and Motorball is meant to be important to the next phase in Alita: Battle Angel’s story progression.
As Jai Courtney’s social media antics came shortly before Robert Rodriguez himself recently offering the details about how he pitched Alita: Battle Angel with producer James Cameron, it’s harder not to think about how this mysterious project could be some sort of building block to an Alita sequel. However, there is something else interesting to consider, as another recently mocapped star has inadvertently linked himself to Courtney’s recent activity.
Tha post that fueled Alita: Battle Angel speculation was, coincidentally, also liked by Justice League actor/Dungeons and Dragons geek Joe Manganiello. Or at least, it would seem coincidental if it wasn’t for the fact that a couple days after Jai Courtney posted his big mocap photo, Manganiello himself posted a similar image. Which was also liked by Jai Courtney:
Now there’s the possibility that with Joe Manganiello and Jai Courtney sharing the DC Extended Universe in their respective resumes, this mocap shoot could be for something related to that realm. However, much like it wouldn’t exactly be necessary for Captain Boomerang to be mocapped on roller skates, Deathstroke isn’t the rollerblading type. So there’s three big possibilities here: either Courtney and Manganiello are doing motion capture for an Alita: Fallen Angel pitch reel, they’re doing some sort of work on a DCEU project to be announced, or they’re both working on projects that could be unrelated and unconnected to anything mentioned here.
Still, the possibility of Jai Courtney getting to bring Jashugan back to life for an Alita: Battle Angel linked project is enough to keep the internet speculating. And potentially bringing Joe Manganiello on board means that the fun could only grow. We’ll have to wait and see how this particular tease pans out, but in the meantime, you can watch Alita: Battle Angel on HBO Max, and read our exclusive coverage on how the Alita Army is pushing for that dream sequel to become a reality.
