Alita producer: If you want a sequel, let Disney know

At the start of this year, 20th Century Fox released the manga adaptation ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (pick up a copy HERE), which was directed by Robert Rodriguez and produced by James Cameron. Soon after, Fox was absorbed into Disney, and even though ALITA had a respectable box office run (almost $405 million worldwide), there has been no word on whether or not Disney has any interest in making a sequel.

Rodriguez has said he "would love to come back" and direct another ALITA movie, star Rosa Salazar has said she "would play Alita 'til my last breath", and over 121,000 fans have signed a petition asking for a sequel, but Disney hasn't acknowledged any of that yet. 

Speaking with CinemaBlend, producer Jon Landau said that if fans want to see more ALITA, they should keep making noise about it:

What I think the Alita Army should do is keep peppering our family now at Disney and [let them know] how important it is to have another Alita movie and hopefully we'll venture there one day."

Landau confirmed that there are story ideas in place for future ALITA movies, as Cameron 

had plotted out two additional stories of where we would go very specifically."

The producer went on to break down just how long it might take to make an ALITA 2 if Disney were to give the greenlight tomorrow: 

I think when you can talk about any movie, and I won’t talk specifically about Alita, but your first step is writing a script. You've got to assume that's going to take you 12 to 18 months to write a script. Assuming that script is great, you then have a six to 10 month pre-production. You then have a six month shoot. You then have a year of post-production and that's just any movie of this ilk."

So unfortunately, it sounds like fans probably shouldn't expect to see a sequel until late 2023 at best.

Rodriguez directed ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL from a script by Laeta Kalogridis and Cameron. Set several centures in the future, the story begins when 

the abandoned Alita is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Ido, a compassionate cyber-doctor who takes the unconscious cyborg Alita to his clinic. When Alita awakens, she has no memory of who she is, nor does she have any recognition of the world she finds herself in. As Alita learns to navigate her new life and the treacherous streets of Iron City, Ido tries to shield her from her mysterious past.

Salazar's co-stars include Christoph Waltz as Ido; Keean Johnson as her street smart friend Hugo; Mahershala Ali, who plays two different characters, one of whom is Vector, who "runs and fixes matches in a gladiator-style combat game called Motorball"; Jennifer Connelly as one of the villains; Jorge Lendeborg Jr. as a friend to Hugo; Jackie Earle Haley, Ed Skrein, and Eiza González as villainous cyborgs; Leonard Wu as another cyborg; Lana Condor as an orphaned photographer; Marko Zaror as Motorball player Ajakutty; and Michelle Rodriguez as the cyborg Gelda.