It has been a long year for many of us, and you only have to think back a few months see so for yourself. If you can believe it, Alita: Battle Angel debuted earlier this year under 20th Century Fox. The live-action anime imagined one of Japan’s most beloved stories in a new medium, and many fans were left wanting more.
However, there is just one problem with that. No sequel has been announced for Alita: Battle Angel. The movie was made by Fox alone, but that property now belongs to Disney following a buyout. If a sequel were to happen, it would be Disney at the helm, and the producer of Alita: Battle Angel says the follow-up would take some time to create after getting an all clear.
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Recently, CinemaBlend was able to speak with Jon Landau who co-produced Alita: Battle Angel right alongside James Cameron. It was there the producer stressed movies take a long time to make, and a sequel would be no different.
“I won’t talk specifically about Alita, but your first step is writing a script. You’ve got to assume that’s going to take you 12 to 18 months to write a script. Assuming that script is great, you then have a six to 10 month pre-production. You then have a six month shoot. You then have a year of post-production and that’s just any movie of this ilk,” Landau said.
With this note in mind, fans rallying for an Alita sequel could be waiting quite awhile. The movie has a dedicated fanbase which petitions for more content daily. If all goes well, their pleas will not go unheard, but it could be 4-5 years before Alita even thinks of returning to theaters.
Would you like to see Alita: Battle Angel return for a sequel…? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!
Battle Angel Alita (known as GUNNM in Japan) was originally created by Yukito Kishiro for Shueisha’s Weekly Business Jump in 1990. The series is set in a post-apocalyptic future and follows Alita, a cyborg who is found in a garbage heap by a doctor and rebuilt. Completely devoid of her memory, all she has to cling to is a legendary cyborg martial art known as Panzer Kunst. With this knowledge, Alita decides to become a bounty hunter. The series has since been licensed for an English language release by Viz Media, and collected into nine volumes.
