We still don’t know if we’ll ever get a sequel to Alita: Battle Angel, but Rosa Salazar, who starred in the science fiction movie, is adamant about making one. In an interview with The Digital Fix, she said she’ll be pushing to return to that universe until it happens.
“I will fight to make Alita 2 happen until the end of time,” Salazar told us. “Thanks to performance capture technology, I could do this movie whenever. I could perform this sequel in five years, but I don’t think it should take that long. I think that it’s a story that should continue.” Alita: Battle Angel follows the titular cyborg with a human brain, played by Salazar, who has to uncover her memories after her body is restored.
The action movie is set several hundred years into the future, and it makes heavy use of performance capture and CGI in depicting its biomechanical wasteland. Salazar’s performance was subject to some very particular effects, to make her face look more like the manga on which the production is based. The whole thing is a surreal, beguiling spectacle that pushes the boundaries of technology.
“I love a blending my performance with these beautiful technological feats, these advances, these artists,” Salazar adds. “It’s a big endeavor that I love to be a part of. These big teams of artists constructing this one thing together, nothing happens in a vacuum.”
Robert Rodiguez directed Alita: Battle Angel, with James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis writing the script. It’s been a passion project of Cameron’s since the ’90s, and although he couldn’t direct because he has his hands full with Avatar these days, he’s still heavily involved as a producer.
Unfortunately, Alita didn’t do especially well commercially or critically, but it has an ardent fanbase nonetheless. Rodriguez has been campaigning behind the scenes to get a follow-up off the ground. Will we get Alita: Battle Angel 2? Seems like everyone involved is keen.
For now, you can find Salazar in the Amazon Prime Video TV series Undone, which uses rotoscoping technology to blur the lines between animated and live-action. It’s a family drama involving time travel and alternate realities, and you can find season 1 already on the platform, with season 2 premiering on April 29.