James Cameron Promises Alita: Battle Angel 2 Is Still Coming

Never bet against James Cameron. Time and time again, Cameron has made gigantic gambles that everyone doubted, whether it was spending a record-breaking amount of money for a sequel for his grimy horror flick about a killer robot from the future or spending another record-breaking amount of money on to recreate the sinking of the Titanic or spending another record-breaking amount of money to basically remake Fern Gully. And each and every time, Cameron turns out to be correct.

So as much as it seems unlikely that anyone would green light a sequel to the 2019 sci-fi oddity Alita: Battle Angel, we have to believe that it will happen, simply because James Cameron says it will. “Robert Rodriguez and I have sworn a blood oath to do at least one more Alita movie,” Cameron told Empire Magazine, speaking for himself and for director of the first film. “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.”

Even better, Cameron added some specifics. “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 [for Avatar] here in a few weeks.”

Written by Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis, and based on the manga Battle Angel Alita by Yukito Kishiro, Alita: Battle Angel starred Rosa Salazar as a cybernetic woman built from a scrapheap by the kindly Dr. Ido (Cristoph Waltz) and becomes a champion Motorball player and, eventually, a revolutionary. In addition to the spectacular fight action sequences that Rodriguez puts into the film and movie’s odd world-building, Alita is notable for the way it digitally enhanced Salazar’s appearance, giving Alita the giagantic eyes common to manga and anime.

Despite only doing modest sales in the U.S., Alita doubled its budget worldwide. However, critics were far more mixed on the film, with some wowed by its ability to bring the manga to life and others unimpressed by its flat storytelling. Despite the uneven reviews, Alita has found a strong audience, and their numbers continue to grow. As they grow, so do the calls for another adventure.

According to Cameron, that support inspired him to keep working on Alita 2. “I appreciate the loyalty of the Alita fans,” he acknowledged. But, let’s be honest, the movie doesn’t really need fan support to happen. Robert Rodriguez has always been one of cinema’s true mavericks, and has always followed his own muse. Who else would turn his kid’s stories into the feature film The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 2005, and then revisit the film with We Can Be Heroes 15 years later?

Well, James Cameron would. Because he always does what he wants, such as making more Avatar movies, despite people claiming the original film from 2009 had no cultural footprint. And here he is in 2025 finishing Avatar: Fire and Ash, the reason for the Empire interview that led to the Alita conversation. So if Cameron says it’s going to happen, and if he has Rodriguez on his side, no sane person would doubt that Alita will be motoring into theaters again soon.