When talking to Andrew J. Salazar of Discussing Film, Robert Rodriguez shared his appreciation for the campaign that the Alita Army launched for an Alita sequel. While he suggests that Alita: Battle Angel “didn’t perform well”, he confesses that it may be better to have a film that is adored by few than it is to have a film that is successful in the short-term but rarely spoken of in the long-term.

“If they are effected by it enough that they would take the time to go and start a campaign, that’s like next level. … it’s so impressive and heartwarming because you went and did that really because you also loved the material the same way and you felt it was worth the number of years you’re going to put in to make it. So when it’s validated by an audience, even though, you know… It wasn’t the perfect time to come out with it, but that the fans still didn’t let anyone forget that they loved that movie. It’s almost better than having a movie that does really well but no one remembers in six to eight years.”

You can read the entire interview with Robert Rodriguez at the following link: https://discussingfilm.net/2020/12/28/robert-rodriguez-on-his-long-awaited-return-to-family-films-exclusive-interview/

It’s been rumored since May that Disney was strongly considering an Alita prequel series for Disney+ but it was hard for many people to see how Alita: Battle Angel would be a fit for the “family friendly” brand. Recently, a number of people claimed to have insider knowledge of the prequel series being a reality – Grace Randolph being one of them – further begging the question of how Disney was going to make this work.

Disney’s plan for an additional brand to be the home for more mature content was apparently leaked in a video that showed what might’ve been a presentation prepared for investors. “Disney 18+” was the brand name in the leaked video seen below:

You didn’t have to be a genius to guess why that name would be probably end up being changed. It was much more likely that Disney would take a platform for mature content that it already owned (Hulu) and rebrand it as a part of Disney+. And that is what is now being rumored to be the course of action.

According to Collider.com:

“The working theory is that there’s strength in numbers, and The Walt Disney Company would look much more appealing to Wall Street investors if it could boast of having 110 million subscribers on a single service, rather than 73.7 million on Disney+ and 36.6 million on Hulu. It simply makes more sense to combine the two streaming services into one single juggernaut that appeals to both families and adults.”

A Hulu spokesperson is denying the truth to the rumors, of course. But this move makes too much sense for Disney to not go through with. You can read more at Collider here: https://collider.com/will-hulu-be-folded-into-disney-plus/