The team behind Alita: Battle Angel discuss Ed Skrein’s transformation into Zapan in a behind the scenes clip from the live-action film. Adapted from Yukito Kishiro’s manga series Battle Angel Alita (which ran from 1990-95), Alita was originally envisioned as being a directorial vehicle for James Cameron back in the early 2000s. However, following the success of Avatar, Cameron ultimately handed the project off to Robert Rodriguez, allowing him to focus all of his attention on his upcoming sequels to that movie instead.
Released back in February (following a couple of release date delays), Alita stars Rosa Salazar (The Maze Runner trilogy) as its namesake, along with a cast that includes Christoph Waltz as Dr. Dyson Ido - the cyborg scientist who reconstructs Alita after finding her remains in a junkyard - and the new Blade himself, Mahershala Ali, as Vector, a crooked businessman with a keen interest in Alita. However, a new behind the scenes look focuses on another villain from the film altogether.
Screen Rant is exclusively debuting a clip from Alita’s “Allies & Adversaries” bonus feature that focuses on Skrein’s character Zapan, ahead of its premiere with the film on Blu-ray later this week. You can check it out in the space below.
Skrein, of course, is otherwise best known for playing the villainous Ajax in Deadpool, though he also portrayed the racist Officer Bell during a brief, but memorable, appearance in last year’s If Beale Street Could Talk adaptation. He will return to the big screen this October for Disney’s Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, where he may or may not be playing an antagonist that squares off against the horned fairy. Despite his knack for portraying evil-doers, however, Skrein is known for being a charismatic and thoughtful person in real life, as this BTS video illustrates.
There’s even a chance that Skrein will return as Zapan in an upcoming Alita sequel, should it ever come to pass. Problem is, because the original movie was such an expensive venture (see also: the impressive, but costly, visual effects used to transform Skrein into a cyborg with naught but a human face), it was only a modest success at the box office. That makes the probability of a sequel slight at best, especially now that Disney is restructuring Fox and its operations following its acquisition of their entertainment assets. Still, if Alita 2 ever does happen, then here’s hoping that Skrein gets to play the swaggering, sword-wielding bounty hunter once again.
Alita: Battle Angel becomes available on Blu-ray tomorrow, July 23.
