‘Alita: Battle Angel’ Releases New Theatrical Trailer

The world may not be ready for another live-action take on anime, but that isn’t about to stop the team behind Alita: Battle Angel. The crew has faith their vision for the iconic heroine will go over smoothly, and a brand-new trailer for the film has dropped in order to show that to fans.

As you can see above, the new trailer is a full-length theatrical reel showcasing plenty of brand-new footage of Alita: Battle Angel. The clip begins with a dark opening featuring a voiceover as pieces of a post-apocalyptic word are shown. Various pieces of the Scrapyard are shown, the meager area where the poorest on Earth live. Iron City has become a melting pot for thousands in the wake of a massive world war, and it is there where Alita is found by Doctor Ito.

The trailer moves forward, showing more of Alita in action as she meets Ito in person and some less-than-friendly strangers. A bevy of manga-canon characters are shown such as Makaku and Zapan. Alita is also introduced to a young man named Hugo who rides a motorcycle, and judging by the way the girl is looking at the guy, she seems to have found her first crush.

Of course, fans are also given a better look at the martial arts style Alita uses. In the manga, the heroine is famed for her unique ability to use Panzer Kunst, a form a fighting lost eras ago. When she is revived by Ito, Alita finds she is still able to use the style to fight, and she comes one of the most formidable Hunter Warriors in Iron City as such.

What do you make of this second trailer? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!

For those unfamiliar with Battle Angel Alita (GUNNM in Japan), the series was originally created by Yukito Kishiro. 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. Originally published in Shueisha’s Weekly Business Jump in 1990, it was collected into nine volumes and licensed for an English language release by Viz Media.

The series was adapted into a short anime OVA series, and was the only anime adaptation to date. The film, Alita: Battle Angel, had been struck with production delays for several years before finally debuting its first trailer. Alita: Battle Angel will be directed by Robert Rodriguez, produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau, stars Rosa Salazar (as the titular Alita), Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, and will hit theaters July 20, 2018.