Disney came very close to making TRON 3 in the 2010s; here's what they originally had planned. In its own way, the TRON franchise is one of the most influential properties of the last forty years, at least from a technical perspective. Steven Lisberger's original 1982 TRON movie pioneered the use of combining computer-generated visuals with live-action footage and animation at a time when CGI effects were still considered something of a "cheat". 28 years later, Joseph Kosinski's sequel, TRON: Legacy, would similarly raise the bar for VFX with its use of digital de-aging and immersive 3D cinematography.
Although it wasn't a runaway critical or commercial success, Legacy was still profitable for Disney (grossing $400 million at the box office against a $170 million budget), and picked up praise for its blend of cutting-edge visuals, slick action, and brainy sci-fi themes. If anything, the general response to the movie (like that to the original TRON) has only improved in the years since its release, keeping the demand for TRON 3 alive and well. In fact, at one point, the project was on the verge of starting production before Disney called it off at the eleventh hour.
As is often the case with cancelled Hollywood tentpoles, the story behind the original TRON 3's collapse is somewhat complicated. But before we get into that, let's take a look at what this iteration of the sequel would've been about.
What TRON 3's Story Would've Been About
During an interview with Collider in 2017, Kosinski outlined the original story for TRON 3, calling it an "invasion movie." Titled TRON: Ascension, the film would've moved back and forth between the real world and the digital frontier of The Grid, with beings from both realms crossing over to the other. Specifically, Kosinski said the first act would've taken place in the real world before returning to The Grid in the second act and then back to the real world for the third, presumably as digital characters "invade" or "ascend" to everyday reality. He also said beings from The Grid wouldn't have possessed superpowers in the real world, explaining "I don’t see them being able to shoot lasers from their eyes or do what I would consider to be a superhero-type movie."
The idea was to build on the ending to Legacy, which saw Quorra (Olivia Wilde) - an "isomorphic algorithm" from The Grid - follow Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) into the real-world, making her the first-ever "digital-human hybrid", as Kosinski put it. By implication, there's something in her design that allows her to become a permanent being outside of The Grid, and the storyline for Ascension would've explored just what that is. Building on that, Kosinski confirmed the film would've been focused more on Quorra than Sam by showing how she's changed after living in the real world for a few years and raising questions about which realm she truly belongs in.
Why TRON 3 Didn't Happen
While Legacy did, in fact, perform well enough to convince Disney to move forward with pre-production on Ascension, it wasn't a big enough success to find itself on the fast-track. Rather, Kosinski and his creative team spent the next few years slowly, but steadily, developing the script and getting it ready to enter production by sometime in either 2014 or 2015. Problem was, as Ascension continued to make its way down the pipeline, the MCU went from being an experiment in blockbuster filmmaking to dominating the box office, and Disney officially took control of Star Wars after buying Lucasfilm in 2012. Combined with the rise of their cottage industry of live-action remakes based on their animated films, and suddenly making TRON 3 (itself, far less of a surefire bet than a Marvel or Star Wars movie) seemed less interesting to the studio.
In spite of all that, Disney still decided to give TRON 3 a green-light and was ready to begin production shortly before cancelling the project in May 2015. As Hedlund later explained, the studio got spooked off when another expensive live-action movie, Brad Bird's Tomorrowland, bombed at the box office that same month. On top of that, Tomorrowland was the latest in a string of costly failed tentpoles released by Disney at that time, following on the heels of John Carter and The Lone Ranger. So, all in all, it's no surprise they decided to continue churning out live-action remakes, MCU films, and Star Wars movies at the time, rather that going back to the TRON well.
Will There Be Another TRON Movie?
Interestingly, Disney actually toyed with the idea of rebooting the TRON franchise a couple years after cancelling TRON 3, and even attached Jared Leto to star in the new film as Ares (a new character who was originally supposed to play a key role in Ascension). However, there haven't been any real updates on the project in the three years since that story broke, so it's probably safe to assume the idea has either been abandoned or pushed to the back of the line for the time being. That goes double for the since-scrapped TRON TV series John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) was working on for Disney+.
Still, as recently as April 2020, Kosinski said he thinks TRON 3 could still happen at Disney, assuming the timing is right. Disney, for its part, has only continued to promote the TRON brand in the nearly-ten years since Legacy came out (most notably, by premiering the Tron Lightcycle Power Run at Shanghai Disneyland), so it's not as though the studio is trying to pretend the franchise doesn't exist. Plus, as Kosinski has pointed out, TRON 3 might actually benefit from being delayed as long as it has been. The previous two TRON movies were highly ambitious projects (both in terms of their sci-fi ideas and, to a greater degree, their technical qualities), so the ten-year break will make it easier for this new chapter to continue raising the ante for the franchise. Hopefully, though, it won't be another 18 years until TRON 3 finally happens (assuming it ever does).