Credit: Disney

I finally got around to seeing Alita: Battle Angel, a movie I meant to see in theaters but somehow didn’t get to and one which I kept meaning to watch over the intervening months but never did. Until this weekend (it just became available on HBO).

Thank goodness I did, finally. Better late than never, as they say. Though there’s a bitter-sweetness to the viewing: The movie ends with such a clear setup for a sequel, it’s almost unfathomable that we might not get one. The final conflict between Alita and the Big Bad (I won’t spoil anything here) has yet to go down, and we’re all left in the lurch.

Disney has no reason not to make an Alita sequel. The movie made just under $405 million, which is a lot for an IP that’s relatively unknown. Certainly this is no Star Wars or Marvel brand, and yet it made more at the box office than Solo: A Star Wars Story ($393.2 million).

Speaking of which, Disney is in an awkward place right now with both those franchises. Star Wars just wrapped the Skywalker Saga and the MCU lost both Iron Man and Captain America in one fell swoop. Going forward, both franchises will look very different. James Cameron’s sequels for Avatar are on the way, but we have yet to see how they’ll play with audiences compared to the first one, which came out over a decade ago and reintroduced 3D to moviegoers.

Disney would be wise to diversify a little bit, and put some of its eggs into the Alita: Battle Angel basket. There’s rich soil for a new franchise here, with multiple sequels and spin-offs, including a video game spin-off. Hell, I’d play a Motorball spin-off video game. That could be awesome.

Either way, Disney should not look a gift horse in the mouth. Alita is a potentially lucrative franchise just waiting to be made with a strong and vocal fanbase who would definitely buy movie tickets and merch.

That’s the ideal Disney property, right? Tickets and toys? Maybe even a Motorball ride at one of its parks?

If you haven’t seen it yet, go watch Alita: Battle Angel. It’s awesome.

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