These days, long-delayed sequels to cult favorite movies are an increasingly regular occurrence, but the resurrection of the Tron franchise a decade ago was something of an outlier at the time. The 1982 original always boasted a dedicated and loyal following, but it was still a risky investment for Disney to spend $170 million on a big budget reboot.
Legacy did manage to do decent business at the box office, but a global tally of $400 million meant that the profit margins were razor thin once marketing and promotional costs were taken into account, and the proposed third movie stalled despite the reboot ending on a blatantly sequel-baiting note.
A new adventure in the Tron universe has been rumored on multiple occasions since then, with Jared Leto’s name having been floated as a potential star for over three years now, but despite their status as the all-conquering overlords of entertainment, Disney still haven’t taken the plunge to return to the Grid.
A live-action series for Disney Plus was in development for a while with Academy Award-winning 12 Years a Slave writer John Ridley attached, but despite high-profile original content being relatively thin on the ground for the company’s in-house streaming service, the plans were ultimately abandoned in March of this year.
Legacy director Joseph Kosinski has previously spoken of the difficulties in mounting a new Tron movie, and the prospect gets less and less likely as time goes on. However, a new report claims that the third installment hasn’t been officially canned as of yet, and Leto is still attached to the project, which won’t be a fully-fledged reboot but rather a continuation of Legacy’s story. Furthermore, it’s said that some of the actors from the aforementioned film may return.
The world of Tron is an expensive one to bring to the big screen, and Disney are definitely in the business of making money rather than losing it, but after the first sequel took 28 years to arrive, it wouldn’t come as a surprise if fans had to wait a while yet for the next one.
