Since the movie's release just over a year ago, the passionate campaign for a sequel to the cyberpunk action film Alita: Battle Angel has been pretty substantial. With fan-lead petitions reaching thousands of signatures, and a banner calling for the follow-up flying over the most recent Academy awards, there is clearly a big appetite for Alita: Battle Angel 2. That hunger is shared by Alita: Battle Angel star Keean Johnson, who played Hugo in the first movie, and thinks that there should not only be one sequel, but many.

"After hearing stuff from [James Cameron] and Robert [Rodriguez] 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."

So, a sequel may be the first step, but Keean Johnson evidently has even more lofty dreams for the franchise. Having heard comments from producer James Cameron and the movie's director Robert Rodriguez about all of the different things that could happen in the story were it to be given the chance to continue on the big screen, Johnson is now convinced that there is more than enough to produce multiple sequels. Of course, Johnson being involved might be a little difficult seeing as his character, Hugo, met his tragic demise in the first movie.

The actor's words echo those of fans ever since the release of the first movie. With Alita: Battle Angel clearly setting up a sequel come of the movie's finale, it is not surprising that audiences have been crying out for a continuation ever since. Much like Johnson they too believe in the potential for the franchise and are excited to see further exploration into the characters and the world of this cyberpunk future.

Unfortunately at the moment this all just conjecture, as there are currently no official plans for a follow-up to Alita: Battle Angel at the time of writing. Though fans did fly a banner for Alita 2 over the Oscars ceremony earlier this year. There is, of course, plenty of story to tell, simply based on the sheer amount of source material that the cast and crew have to go on. The first movie is based on the first two volumes of Yukito Kishiro's manga, with there being nine volumes in total. We also know from Rodriguez that Cameron had rough notes which mapped out an entire trilogy, so it would not be too difficult to get the movie going should a sequel (or more) be announced.

The first Alita: Battle Angel was not a cheap movie to make and did not exactly light up the box office, with many claiming that the movie only just broke even. Surely a sequel would need to be even bigger, but with the following that the first movie has garnered since release, it is reasonable to assume that any sequels would do better financially. The desire is there, so it is just a waiting game to see whether the studio takes notice.

This comes to us courtesy of Unilad.