I've been saying for a while now that Mahershala Ali is destined for greatness. Either he's going to win an Emmy for the work he's done on the small screen, like in House of Cards and Luke Cage (review here) where he plays the villain Cottonmouth, or on the big screen in films such as potential Best Picture contender Moonlight. But he's not shy about taking on the occasional franchise part, and THR reports he's joining the anticipated manga adaptation Alita: Battle Angel.
Ali joins a cast that includes Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jackie Earle Haley, Ed Skrein, and Keann Johnson with Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) behind the camera. Yukito Kishiro's classic manga centers on the titular amnesiac cyborg who was found in a trash heap by a scientist who rebuilds her into a fearsome bounty hunter equipped with a devastating martial art. Ali's role has been revealed as the villain known as Vector, a supplier of Black Market human body parts and organs, not to mention his business fixing matches for an illegal gladiator contest known as Motorball.
Alita: Battle Angel opens July 20th 2018.
