How Avatar 2 is influencing potential Alita Battle Angel sequel

In an exclusive interview with Dexerto about his upcoming movie Hypnotic, Robert Rodriguez opened up about how Avatar 2 is set to influence the potential Alita: Battle Angel sequel. 

The Desperados auteur famously stepped in to direct the original Alita: Battle Angel as James Cameron was wrapped up with his Avatar franchise. That being said, Cameron was able to co-write the script on his passion project alongside Laeta Kalogridis.

Despite its modest box office success, the manga adaptation earned a solid fanbase after its 2019 release. What’s more, it followed in the footsteps of Avatar by showcasing the capabilities of modern technology to blend computer-generated and live-action characters.

With much anticipation for an Alita: Battle Angel 2, Dexerto asked the filmmaker himself, Robert Rodriguez, about the project and the impact Avatar: The Way of Water has on its development. 

How Avatar 2 is influencing potential Alita Battle Angel sequel

Dexerto caught up with Rodriguez ahead of the release of Hypnotic, his forthcoming twist-filled thriller starring Ben Affleck. Check out the trailer below:

Alongside his new project, we asked the filmmaker about the impact of Avatar on Alita Battle Angel and vice-versa, and whether technology has progressed in a way that would change how he went about making a sequel. 

“Yeah, because they’ve just done such innovations and facial work,” Rodriguez explained. “Alita really helped them crack some things that would help them on Avatar 2, and now that they’ve cracked those with Avatar 2, it would help an Alita movie as much as it would help the next Avatar movie.”

As for whether we can expect an Alita Battle Angel 2 in the near future, although he wasn’t able to give a timeframe, he’s certainly keen. “We’re hoping we can make that happen,” he added. “We’d love to.”

His comments follow on from those made by Alita producer Jon Landau in a recent interview with Screen Rant, where he spoke about the success of Avatar: The Way of Water and development on the Alita sequel. 

“We’re working on it,” he said. “I think what we’ve learned from Avatar is how much more facial nuance and subtlety that we can get into characters that we want to be emotional and emote that are humanoid.

“Alita would not have been possible, but for what we did on Avatar. Avatar: The Way of Water would not be what it is but what we did for Alita. And now let’s put that back and give it back to Alita. We’re talking to Robert [Rodriguez] and talking to Rosa [Salazar] and all is good.”

Hypnotic drops in US cinemas on May 12, 2023, and in UK cinemas on May 26, 2023. In the meantime, check out our other TV and movie hubs below:

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