Mahershala Ali will run the Motorball in Alita: Battle Angel

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Mahershala Ali, who can be seen as the villain Cottonmouth on the newly released Marvel / Netflix series Luke Cage, has just landed another villain role, this time in the Robert Rodriguez directed, James Cameron produced manga adaptation ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, which centers on 

a female cyborg that is discovered in a scrap yard by a scientist. With no memory of her previous life except her deadly martial-arts training, the woman becomes a bounty hunter, tracking down criminals.

It sounds like the cyborg Alita, played by Rosa Salazar (pictured below), will have quite a few bad guys to face off with, because Jackie Earle Haley and Ed Skrein have already been cast as villainous cyborgs. Ali joins them as Vector, a man who "runs and fixes matches in a gladiator-style combat game called Motorball."

Also in the cast are Christoph Waltz as Alita's mentor and Keean Johnson as her love interest, who teaches her how to play Motorball.

Ali previously worked with Rodriguez on 2010's PREDATORS, which Rodriguez produced.

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL begins filming in Austin, Texas this month.