TRON: Legacy received mixed reviews when it was released back in 2010, but the movie proved to be a big hit for Disney, and it was generally assumed that a third film was an inevitability. TRON 3 was reportedly being discussed in 2015, but the studio is said to have pulled the plug after Tomorrowland underperformed.
Now, director Legacy Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion, Top Gun: Maverick) has revealed what he believes to be the real reason Disney lost interest in a threequel.
"I got so close. I really tried. I got close in 2015, and Disney pulled the plug on it," Kosinski tells ComicBook.com. "I hadn't built anything, but I had the whole movie storyboarded and written. I was really excited because it was inverting the idea: It was all that stuff coming into our world, and it was about the blending of the two."
"It was a different Disney by 2015," he continued. "When I made Tron: Legacy, they didn't own Marvel; they didn't own Star Wars. We were the play for fantasy and science fiction," Kosinski said. "And once you've got those other things under your umbrella, it makes sense that you're going to put your money into a known property and not the weird art student with black fingernails in the corner — that was Tron."
There may well be some truth to this, although a third TRON movie was officially announced in 2020 with Jared Leto (Morbius, Blade Runner 2049) attached to star. The project even enlisted a director in Garth Davis (Lion Mary Magdalene), but we've had no word since.
At this point, it seems unlikely that Kosinski will get the opportunity to helm his Legacy follow-up, but there is definitely an audience for more adventures in The Grid, so Disney would be wise to capitalize.