Could TRON 3 be back on the cards?

A sequel to ‘TRON: Legacy’ could still happen after all, according to the movie’s director Joseph Kosinski.

During a screening of the movie in IMAX format in Los Angeles earlier this week, Kosinksi revealed details of the potential story, how far plans had come along, and the potential for another chapter in the Tron series.

Disney released the movie in 2010, a long-awaited sequel to the 1982 cult classic, but plans for the follow-up were canned as a knock-on effect of the massive financial failure of the movie ‘Tomorrowland’.

Kosinski has now said that the sequel was to be called ‘TRON: Ascension’, and it was to be an ‘invasion movie’.

“I think we got the script to about 80%. We were in good shape,” he told Collider.

“We were probably eight or nine months out, which is still a good amount of distance from being ready to shoot it, but I think the script was in good shape. What I’m excited about is the concept, which is an invasion movie from inside the machine coming out as opposed to one we’ve usually seen.

“The idea for Ascension was a movie that was, the first act was in the real world, the second act was in the world of TRON, or multiple worlds of TRON, and the third act was totally in the real world.

“And I think that really opens up, blows open the concept of TRON in a way that would be thrilling to see on screen.”

He went on to say that now the profile of Disney has changed, he’s hopeful it’s not over for the world of TRON.

“I guess I can say that ‘TRON 3’ is in cryogenic freeze,”he said.

“So, it’s there. It’s not dead. It’s alive, but it’s sitting there, waiting for the right time to move forward.

“I mean, you have to remember that when we made ‘TRON: Legacy,’ Disney did not own Marvel. Disney did not own Lucasfilm…they own everything now.

“But this was before they owned everything, so from the studio point of view, they have a certain number of slots and a certain amount of money to make movies and if you can make a Star Wars spinoff or another Marvel movie, which are all doing incredibly well, a TRON movie, even though I think it would do very well, the question is: Would it do as well as one of those?

“That is more the reason we haven’t seen another TRON is that Disney stock is flushed with really successful properties right now. But that doesn’t mean we won’t see one at one point.”

The movie, which starred Garret Hedlund, Olivia Wilde and original stars Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, made $400 million at the box office, likely a moderate success from its $170 million production budget.

By comparison, the original 1982 seriously underperformed at the cinema, making $33 million, but costing an ambitious $17 million, though it later became something of a cult classic.

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