10 Cancelled Movie Sequels (That Could Still Happen)

6. Alita: Battle Angel 2

Battle Angel Alita
20th Century Studios

Cancellation

Like Edge of Tomorrow, Alita: Battle Angel didn't blow the doors off the box-office, but it did do well enough to warrant a sequel. Producer James Cameron and director Robert Rodriguez always intended to make more than one - the original even lays the seeds for a franchise - but ultimately, it's not their decision.

The first film came out right when the massive Disney/Fox merger was taking place, and this has complicated the production of a sequel, something that star Rosa Salazar confirmed to SlashFilm in July 2019:

"The whole Disney/Fox acquisition is so involved, this isn’t the right time for me to call [Walt Disney Studios chief creative officer] Alan Horn and be like, ‘Hey bro, I know you got a lotta stuff going on, but like what about Alita 2?'"

Then, in April 2020, actor Christoph Waltz cast doubt on the possibility of a sequel, saying that he hasn't heard anything about it. According to him, the sequel was a Fox thing, but after the Disney merger, "Fox doesn’t exist anymore."

By the sounds of it, Alita 2 hasn't been greenlit, and in Hollywood, that's often a nice way of saying "cancelled".

Why It's Not Dead

On the other hand, Alita 2 is still very much a possibility. The franchise doesn't seem like typical Disney fare but it is suitable for families, with the first film being slapped with a 12 rating in the UK.

Plus, the stars of the film (and the fans) have expressed interest in a followup on countless occasions, and like we said, Disney hasn't officially pulled the plug just yet. Plus, again, Cameron and Rodriguez already have more plans for this series - so, creatively, the interest is there.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!