Game over!  Disney’s ‘TRON’ was a cutting edge achievement in 1982, being the first movie to really take advantage of then pioneering computer effects.  Despite not being a financial or critical success, the film left an impression and 28 years later, Disney revived the franchise with two of the original film’s stars Bruce Boxleitner and Jeff Bridges, returning for ‘TRON: Legacy.’  Unfortunately, lightning missed twice.  ‘TRON: Legacy’ was also a financial disappointment, but the fact was, Disney was banking on it to kick off a franchise.  The studio held on to that hope until recently, when they officially squelched a third ‘TRON’ movie.

Devotees were despondent, but one person isn’t losing any sleep over it.  Bruce Boxleitner shrugged off an inquiry simply professing, “I don’t really care anymore.  I’m done with it. I’ve moved on. I hate to say that but it’s been too up and down for me. I would rather not just keep going. I don’t want to repeat my career anymore. That’d be like, ‘Let’s reboot ‘Scarecrow and Mrs. King.’ No, I’m not interested. Or ‘Babylon 5.’”

Regarding the scrapping of ‘Tron 3,’ he pointed out one important fact, “For me, I think it’s time to move on. I don’t answer those Twitter things anymore. Fans all came to me, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ I can’t do anything about it. I was just an actor.”

Fans can be passionate about the objects of their obsession, but it’s sometimes easy to forget that for a lot of the folks involved, it’s just another paying job and they have to move on to new ones.

But don’t think that Boxleitner has any negative feelings about the franchise.  He had great things to say about his time in the digital world.

“I’m always about looking forward, but I thought ‘TRON’ was the one thing that would keep going forward because we’re living it.  It’s not like going back and revisiting, trying to remake the original like everything else does. Everything is reboot, reboot, reboot”

Boxleitner does brush off suggestions that it was the failure of ‘Tomorrowland’ that put the nail in the coffin for ‘TRON 3’.

“What did George Clooney’s movie have to do with any of it?” he exclaimed, “That was blamed for it. I just think ‘Maleficent’ and all those other movies did so well for them, they’re going to go onto that… I’ve got a feeling they’re going to play it safe with their old [formula]. I mean, Tim Burton’s doing ‘Dumbo.’ They’re going to make live-action out of their old animated classics.”

And why keep trying to spin gold out of two-time underachiever ‘TRON’ with so many proven successes now under the Disney Banner?

“They’ve got ‘Star Wars.’ They’ve got Marvel. ‘Legacy’ was successful. I’m not sure that they really had that much interest anymore. I hate to say that because I think there’s a lot more to go.

“…Maybe they just felt they had enough of that sci-fi. We were the only real science fiction. ‘Star Wars’ is fantasy, sword and sorcery fantasy with a spaceship. Marvel is superhero comics. ‘Star Wars’, yes, is science fiction. There’s fantasy elements as well, but Marvel is not. It’s comic books. It’s really not sci-fi. It’s not thinking science fiction. Maybe they decided they don’t want to do science fiction.”

Finally, Boxleitner expresses some lament over the end of the cult classic series.  “It breaks my heart, but I understand the times move on. Disney, it’s not in their [wheelhouse] anymore.”

Are you sad that the ‘TRON’ saga is over?  Comment below!

Source: Slash Film