#AlitaArmy rise up: Keean Johnson wants an Alita: Battle Angel sequel.
The 2019 manga adaptation was a passion project for James Cameron. He’d long been attached as director – however, with the impending nuke of four Avatar sequels, he stepped aside to be a producer and let Robert Rodriguez take the reins.
Johnson played Hugo, scrap dealer and love interest of Alita (Rosa Salazar). His deathly fate at the end of the first film seemed fairly concrete – however, that hasn’t curbed his desire for a follow-up to the fan-favourite blockbuster.
In an interview with UNILAD, Johnson exclusively revealed that he’d love to see a sequel to Alita: Battle Angel – particularly after the excruciating, Edward Norton’d cliffhanger.
When asked if he wants a sequel, the Midway actor said:
Oh yeah, after hearing stuff from [James Cameron] and Robert about where the world could go – I think the more that could come out, the better it’d get. There’s so many different things that could happen and so much material. I don’t think Alita could ever get old, so I’d love to watch another one – regardless of whether I’m in it.
Battle Angel was a huge step for the 23-year-old: ‘It was my first real film you could say.’ In one year, Johnson worked with two of cinema’s modern big screen names: Rodriguez and Roland Emmerich.
‘I watched [Rodriguez’s] films growing up – I fell right into his orbit, you know with Sin City and his other movies. So when I got the chance to audition for him, it was kind of a dream come true. When I signed on, it was also too good to be true – then the next day, Christopher Waltz joined the production, and I was like, oh, this is real! So yeah, it was a wild experience,’ he said.
The box office reaction to Battle Angel wasn’t bombastic – but it’s amassed a fervently passionate fan-base online, with endless calls for a sequel. Johnson isn’t surprised though: ‘There was always something unique and world-building and different about Alita.’
Johnson added:
I always thought there’s gonna be a bunch of people that fall in love with the character – at the end of the day, it’s for the Alita fans. Then the #AlitaArmy came along and they’re pretty die-hard – I think it’s cool to be a part of something where people are so in love with it and has such a big following, and they want to see some more.
Johnson’s latest film, Midway, is out now on Digital Download and on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on March 9.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.