X-Men’s Lana Condor Set To Join Battle Angel: Alita

Believe it or not, Lana Condor is in X-Men: Apocalypse (playing Jubilee) sadly most of her screen time was found on the floor of the cutting room. It now looks like the young actress will get a chance to shine even more as she’s joining the cast of the ever-expanding cast for Alita: Battle Angel.

Deadline is reporting Condor will be playing  a character called Koyomi, a photojournalist, a member of the barjack, and rebels that fought against the tyrants from the floating city of Tiphares. There is very little known about Koyomi ‘s backstory apart from she’s a young orphaned teen with connections with several characters.

Alita: Battle Angel (or Battle Angel: Alita as it’s in the UK or Gunnm in Japanese) was created in 1990 by Yukito Kishiro as a Manga comic book, later made into a OVA film released in the UK by Manga Entertainment in 1993. Set in 26th Century post-apocalyptic Earth Alita (or Gally in Japan) is found amongst the trash who found by Ido. With all her memories lost Ido starts to rebuild her becoming not just her mentor but her father figure too. Alita does, however, have one memory, one of the legendary  cyborg martial art Panzer Kunst leading her to become once again a warrior.The movie also tries to rediscover Alita’s past and those lives she has an impact on too.

This has been a passion project for James Cameron for a very long time and he’s stepped back to be the producer leaving the reigns to Robert Rodriguez with  Laeta Kalogridis scripting. Alita will be played by Rosa Salazar with Christoph Waltz playing the doctor who finds the cyborg, Jackie Earle Harley, Ed Skrein, Eiza Gonzalez also star.

With so many international to Hollywood adaptations or movies with white actors in non-white roles will this movie find itself accused of ‘whitewashing’?After the Oscars earlier this year Ghost In The Shell, even the upcoming Iron Fist have found themselves under criticism. Alita: Battle Angela does have several Latino actors (a director) in the cast, plus will be set in futuristic Kanas only time will tell.

Alita:Battle Angel is set for a Summer 2018 release date, you can see Lana Condor play a small role in Peter Berg‘s Patriot’s Day which is released January 2017.