[Update: An HD version of the new Tron Legacy VFX test has been made available - Check it out Here!]

The third and final segment of Disney's opening presentation, which also happened to Comic-Con's first ever 3-D panel, involved the sequel to the cult classic, Tron.

Tron made a big surprise splash at last year's Con by showing an exclusive test clip of Tron 2 which featured Jeff Bridges returning to his role of Kevin Flynn from the first film. Having that under their belt, we in the crowd expected a big show from them this year.

On the panel for this part of the Disney presentation, introduced again by Patton Oswalt - the MC for Disney's 3-D presentation, were director Joe Kosinski along with Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde and Steven Lisberger.

Lisberger, writer and director of the first Tron, is an important piece of the puzzle according to Kosinski, it was absolutely "critical" to have him aboard for the sequel.

Jeff Bridges received a strong welcoming applause when he came on stage and right off the bat, he was asked about Disney's new official title for the film which was showing up on all the screens as Tron Legacy. Bridges explained that it has to do with the story about a son in search for his father, and that the sequel would be "superized," a new term he coined on the spot which resulted in Oswalt teasing Bridges.

The film has been through so many name changes, I really don't think another name change matters at this point.

Moving on, director Joe Kosinski explained that they didn't have too much to show as they just finished principal photography last week but he did have some concept art to show.

The images featured some of the vehicles we'll be seeing in the sequel, the city of Try and the cool looking arena where the 16-player disc tournament takes place. In the Disc game, each game takes place simultaneously and as each player gets eliminated, the board shifts to place the remaining players together and this continues till the final two have one large board to themselves.

I took some photos myself but Peter and his crew over at /Film did a fantastic job of nabbing better-angled shots so here a few thanks to them (continue through the pages for more! [Update: Trailer on Page 4]):

Tron Legacy Event Night, Disc Wars Arena

The modular Disc Wars Arena

Click to continue reading 'Tron 2 Name Change, Concept Art & Comic-Con Panel'

Tron Legacy 5th Generation Light Cycle

5th Generation Light Cycle

Click to continue reading 'Tron 2 Name Change, Concept Art & Comic-Con Panel'

Tron Legacy 2nd Generation Light Cycle

2nd Generation Light Cycle built by Kevin Flynn and rumored to be the fastest on the grid

If you're interested, you can head over to /Film to see some of the others they have up as well.

Click to continue reading 'Tron 2 Name Change, Concept Art & Comic-Con Panel'

Jeff Bridges at Tron Legacy Panel Comic-Con

In addition to the concept images, we got to see a little video of a stunt actor in slow motion doing some crazy flips with a disc in hand. They used the Phantom camera which Kosinski says can do over 1000 frames per second and this is the first time it's been used for 3-D purposes.

After this, Disney's MC, Patton Oswalt, asked Kosinski if that was it, if he hadn't brought anything else to show.

And in response, of course he did! We got to see a teaser trailer for the movie which featured Sean Flynn on his motorcycle in the real world heading to the classic arcade that fans love from the first. He enters the dusty old building, flips on the power which adds the classic Tron theme music to the back ground and he walks up to the Tron arcade machine.

Young Flynn, son of Jeff Bridges' character, puts in a quarter to play but the machine shoots it back out. As Flynn bends down to pick it up, he notices strange markings in the floor which leads him to trying to move the arcade. The machine opens to a doorway behind to which Flynn enters and the arcade closes behind him and that's how the teaser ends.

For a teaser that didn't involve the actual Tron world, I thought it looked very cool.

They followed this up by mentioning the footage we saw last year and playing it again for those of us who were there today. The difference is that this time, they added 3-D. This footage didn't blow me away and I expect different from the actual film when it comes time.

In the Q&A, there were several questions about Daft Punk working the score for the film and the style of music we can expect but the most interesting question came from a fan who asked about how they will attempt to be ground-breaking with this movie compared to how the first one was for its time.

In response, the the director said that they were doing,

"3-4 things that have never been done before and (they) were doing them all at the same time."

I enjoyed the teaser trailer and thought the concept art was cool. As for the clip from last year in 3-D, I was a little unimpressed by that and hope the film will be much better since that was just test footage from before they really started production on the film.

The first people in line (likely all Twilighters) were apparently given an arcade token which would act as a pass to some Tron Legacy event. I didn't get one myself so I can't tell you much about it.

[Update: Here is the brand new Tron Legacy Trailer that was presented as test footage at last year's Con and re-done in 3D for this year's Disney presentation]

[media id=181 width=570 height=340]

(HD versions at Apple.com)

Are you a Tron fan and are you excited for the sequel?

Tron Legacy is planned to open in 2011.