Cameron and Rodriguez Swear ‘Blood Oath’ to Bring Back This Cyberpunk Masterpiece

Fans of Alita: Battle Angel have a reason to get excited. James Cameron confirmed in a recent interview with Empire that he and director Robert Rodriguez are committed to continuing the story of the cyberpunk hit.

“Robert Rodriguez and I have sworn a blood oath to do at least one more Alita movie. In fact, we’re thinking of an architecture that bridges to a third film, but we’ll be satisfied if we can make one more. And we’re making progress on that,” Cameron said.

He also thanked fans for sticking with the franchise. “I appreciate the loyalty of the Alita fans,” he added.

Cameron has been busy with work on Avatar: Fire and Ash, but now that he has moved to Austin, Texas, close to Rodriguez, he says it will be easier to focus on Alita. “Now that I have a home in Austin, Texas, about three miles from [Robert’s] place, I think we’ll probably get more serious about that as soon as I wrap the mix here in a few weeks,” he said.

Alita: Battle Angel first hit theaters in 2019. The film was directed by Rodriguez and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau. It was adapted from Yukito Kishiro’s manga series Battle Angel Alita and stars Rosa Salazar as Alita, a cyborg who wakes up in a new body with no memory of her past and searches for her destiny.

The film also features Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, and Keean Johnson.

The project faced a long road to the screen. It was first announced in 2003, but Cameron’s work on Avatar delayed production for years. Rodriguez was brought on as director in 2016, and filming took place mostly at his Troublemaker Studios in Austin from October 2016 to February 2017.

Alita: Battle Angel premiered in London in January 2019 and was released in the U.S. in February 2019 by 20th Century Fox. The film earned $405 million worldwide, making it Rodriguez’s highest-grossing movie, though it received mixed reviews. A sequel has been in development ever since.

There was also a legal dispute after the film’s release. Epic Stone Group, a Florida-based company, sued 20th Century Fox over the Battle Angel name, but the case was later dismissed.

With Cameron and Rodriguez now ready to move forward, it looks like fans will finally get more of Alita’s story.

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