Scott Campbell of We Got This Covered brings up a very good point when it comes to whether or not Alita: Battle Angel, will possibly get a sequel: Disney owns it as one of their Fox properties. The crowdfunding campaign that appears to be planning to fly a plane over the Oscars with the message of requesting that Disney bring the fans a much-desired sequel sounds more like the buzzing of a mosquito in the peripheral vision of a giant, but the hope of course is that Disney will at least take note and possibly give it some thought. Being pessimistic about this isn’t exactly the preferred choice but this is the Mouse House we’re talking about and as a rule if they don’t think it through and come up with a way to believe that it’s their own idea and in their best interest it’s not likely to happen. The actors might want it, the fans definitely want it, but the Mouse House, despite being able to see that the movie made a good deal of money and earned back its budget pretty easily, still has to weigh whether or not a sequel would do just as good or if it would be another flop that they really don’t want to contemplate since as you can guess, flops from Disney tend to go away very quickly in terms of hype, almost as though the corporation is a toddler trying to hide a very avoidable mistake.
The argument of attempting to get the attention of the higher-ups during the Oscars might sound like a good idea but in truth it’s also something that makes some us question the wisdom of the fans that have come together to do such a thing. It’s kind of like a child trying to gain the attention of the adults at a social gathering, there’s a good chance it might happen but there’s also a chance that the adults will humor the child for a moment or two and then send them off to do their own thing while they continue to talk of other matters. Mike Reyes of CinemaBlend has more to say on this matter. The Academy Awards after all are a time when the elite get together to pat themselves on the back for a job well done and contemplate just who’s going to be worth more by the end of the night and whose career might falter just a bit before they hit the after party. Sadly Alita isn’t likely to be all that big on anyone’s radar since despite being a fun and very engaging movie it didn’t perform in a way that made people continue to talk about it in bigger circles after it was out of the theaters. Even while it was in the theater it was an oddity to be fair and not much else. Personally I liked the movie and thought that it needs another one that should have followed right after to better explain Alita’s world and why she and Nova are locked in continual combat with each other, but obviously the plans changed a bit by the time Alita hit the theaters.
Whether Alita will get a sequel or not is all up to Disney right now and the odds aren’t looking great but it’s not fair to say that they’re completely against the fans at the moment since by making a big enough stink there’s a good chance that the Mouse House will actually listen, or pretend to listen, and possibly be intrigued enough to do something. But the question after that is, would anyone really want them to? Let’s not forget that Disney isn’t going to conform to what people want as much as they might think, and that Alita could possibly change in a big way to fit Disney’s ideas before the movie ever changes the way that the corporation is going to do things. Zack Shark of IndieWire has more to offer on this subject. This has been proven with Star Wars after all and with Marvel, both of whom were more violent and more controversial in their own ways before Disney took over and padded them up with a family-friendly label. It’s true that Star Wars is still a bit rough around the edges and that the MCU has taken its fair share of criticism for a few edgy moves, but upon looking at the source material that both came from it’s hard to say with a straight face that Disney hasn’t modified them in a way that’s slightly less threatening and conforms to their idea of what a movie should be like. If anyone thinks it’s going to be different with their Fox-owned material then hopefully that theory will pan out and Disney will realize that not everyone wants a movie that’s been securely fastened down and given enough of a makeover that the whole family can watch it. But don’t hold your breath in the meantime.
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