Robert Rodriguez Talks About the Big Surprise Cameo in ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL

I recently had a chance to see Alita: Battle Angel, and I loved it! The movie was pretty much everything that I was hoping it would be, and I hope that we get to see a sequel. I think fans are going to enjoy it.

There was a big surprise cameo in the movie that was revealed at the very end, and in a recent interview, director Robert Rodriguez talked about hiring the right actor for this character.

Before I go on, I’m going to throw a spoiler warning up for those of you who want to wait for the surprise.

While Jai Courtney makes a completely random cameo in the film, the big reveal is the actor who takes on the role of Nova in the film. That role went to Edward Norton (Hulk, Fight Club).

Nova is the villainous force that is pulling all of the strings throughout Alita: Battle Angel. He has the ability to assume people’s bodies and communicate through them, and because of that we never see his real face until the end of the film. Nova is very interested in Alita (Rosa Salazar), and he wants her dead. He’s a pivotal character.

When talking with Digital Spy about casting Norton in the role, Rodriguez explained:

“I tried to find somebody who had a real intelligence to them. We went through a list of people that we could find who were worth bothering to do this, because there's no dialogue or anything. It's really for the setup of, if there was a sequel. We want to put someone here who we would want in a sequel. So it's kind of tough casting to do. We both knew Ed. neither of us had worked with Ed. But Ed's really smart. Like Jim [Cameron], he's very, very smart. I've known him for a number of years. I always thought of him as being similar – not looking so much like Jim, but similar. I can see why they were friends. I can just see them geeking out. So when you put the white hair on, it was like, 'Yeah, he kind of looks like Jim. I think that looks good'. That was pretty funny.”

The movie ends on a cliffhanger, and Nova will play a much bigger role in the sequel, so hopefully the movie ends up being a success so we can see the epic conclusion of the story!

I’ll be really bummed out if this movie bombs at the box office. If a movie like this can’t succeed, then there’s no hope for new and unique film franchises to be born in Hollywood. We’ll just keep getting the same remakes and reboots that people complain about.

Alita: Battle Angel hits theaters on February 14th! Go see it!