James Cameron offers up a promising but unusual update on Alita sequels

News
By published

The Avatar director has suggested there's at least one follow-up in the pipeline

Alita: Battle Angel
(Image credit: 20th Century Fox)

James Cameron has confirmed that at least one sequel to Alita: Battle Angel is on the way – but he did so in a rather unexpected way. The filmmaker recently sat down with Forbes to talk about the fact that he's selling his $33 million ranch on the California coast, and when listing his reasons why, he inadvertently dropped the promising update.

"On Avatar, I'm working in Wellington and Los Angeles, and on the new Alita: Battle Angel films, I'll be working in Austin," Cameron, who produced and co-wrote the first Alita flick, revealed. "So it just didn't make sense for us [to be there] anymore."

His wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, then sweetly added: "Our hope is that someone will come in with young children or decide to have children and enjoy it."

Released in February 2019, Alita: Battle Angel takes inspiration from Yukito Kishiro's manga series Battle Angel Alita. Starring Christoph Waltz, Ed Skrein, Keean Johnson, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, and Rosa Salazar as a recently reactivated combat cyborg, it follows the titular teenage bot as she tries to learn more about her past and true identity. 

It reportedly made a little more than $404 million (£327m), double its budget, at the worldwide box office, so it's hardly surprising there's more on the way. Since it came out, fans have been passionately campaigning for more, so they're likely to be thrilled by Cameron's comment.

"Yeah, we have been talking about it, so we would love to make one," Alita: Battle Angel director Robert Rodriguez previously told GamesRadar+. "We haven't set it for sure yet, but we're definitely hoping to and talking about it a lot. They're slammed with all the Avatar stuff, but they've definitely been engaging in it." 

Amy West
Amy West
Entertainment Writer

I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things TV and film across our Total Film and SFX sections. Elsewhere, my words have been published by the likes of Digital Spy, SciFiNow, PinkNews, FANDOM, Radio Times, and Total Film magazine.