James Cameron Confirms Alita: Battle Angel Sequels Are Happening
Forbes reports that James Cameron is selling the California coastal ranch he and his wife, Suzy Amis Cameron, have owned for the past 24 years. One of the reasons he’s selling his home is that his children are grown up, but during his interview, James Cameron also briefly mentioned that he’ll be working in Austin, Texas to develop a sequel to Alita: Battle Angel.
“And on Avatar, I’m working in Wellington and Los Angeles. And on the new Alita: Battle Angel films, I’ll be working in Austin, so it just didn’t make sense for us anymore.”
James Cameron
In other words, the 8,000-square-foot home where Cameron wrote the scripts for his Avatar films and raised his family with this wife has served its purpose, and it sounds like he’s ready to keep pressing forward with his projects in a new location.
Though James Cameron simply made a passing comment about his involvement in the upcoming Alita films (yes, plural), producer Jon Landau confirmed back in April that at least the sequel is in active development.
Whether we’ll eventually end up seeing a trilogy treatment is up for debate, and it’s probably too soon to confirm anything. But the fact that Cameron said films with an “s” was either a slip of tongue, or a hint that he has big plans in store for Alita once he wraps production on the Avatar saga that he’s been tirelessly working on for years.
A sequel to Alita: Battle Angel has already been confirmed, but Cameron’s recent mention of “films” gives hope for more installments.
We don’t know how much progress James Cameron has made on the scripts for the next Alita movies, but Rodriguez confirmed earlier this year that Cameron had outlined the storylines for Battle Angel 2 and 3, indicating that the he at the very least intends to make two more films; it’s just a matter of when.
Another variable to consider is how well they’ll perform at the box office, and how they’re going to be filmed. Studios don’t often green-light subsequent franchise installments until they get the box office numbers, so Cameron may be getting just a little bit ahead of himself.
It’s worth noting, however, that James Cameron has been shooting the Avatar films back-to-back, and it could very well be possible that the upcoming Alita films will be filmed similarly.
Everything We Know About The Alita: Battle Angel Sequel
What we do know is that Robert Rodriguez will be helming the upcoming film as director, and Rosa Salazar will be reprising her motion-capture role as the titular amnesiac cyborg that she portrayed in the first film. And to say that Salazar is excited about working again with James Cameron for a second installment of Alita: Battle Angel would be a gross understatement.
Past interviews suggest that Salazar and Cameron have been in talks for a while now, and Cameron’s interview with Forbes reveals that they’re starting to move forward with the project.
In an April 2022 interview with CinemaBlend, Salazar proudly admitted, “I harass them all the time. Like, it might become a legal issue soon. I email with James Cameron a lot.” She went on to say that James Cameron replied to those emails stating that he was “so down” to continue telling Alita’s story.
Considering how busy James Cameron is with the Avatar franchise, it’s clear that we’re probably going to have to wait some time before we see an Alita sequel be fully realized and executed. But at least we now know that all hands are on deck, and that everybody involved is taking a step in the right direction.
