We know that Joseph Kosinski’s ‘TRON: Legacy’ did well at the box office and with critics, so one might wonder why a third didn’t happen. While we had to wait 28 years for a sequel to ‘TRON‘, ‘TRON: Legacy’ ended up resonating with fans new and old. Not only that, it set up a few major plot threads which could have easily carried into a third outing. While the second film made a profit with $400 million coming in at the box office on a $170 million budget, it seemed that it was enough for talks for a third film to happen, but it never materialized. And why? The answer apparently lies in the poor reception of ‘Tomorrowland‘.
In a recent interview, Garrett Hedlund was discussing the fate of the film which had briefly been greenlit in 2015 before being canceled:
“When the next TRON was supposed to start – we were greenlit and ready to go – and then [Disney] had troubles with how Tomorrowland did. And I think they asked them to give them like a hundred reasons why they should do [TRON 3]. And if that didn’t fall through, I never would’ve been able to work with [Stephen] Soderbergh on [Mosaic].”
With ‘Tomorrowland’ only bringing in $209.2 million at the global box office on a $190 million budget, it was clearly viewed as a flop in the House of Mouse. In fact, outside of their other properties in Lucasfilm and Marvel Studios, they haven’t backed an epic science fiction film since it was released. Most of the production budget these days have gone to their live-action animated adaptations (such as ‘Beauty and the Beast‘ and ‘Cinderella’) which have found success and similar titles.
As ‘TRON 3’ was rumored to be an “invasion movie,” it just doesn’t feel like a good fit with the direction that the studio has gone in recent years. In fact, ‘A Wrinkle in Time‘ will probably be their closest experiment in the genre since that time and even it is built on a classic young adult novel with a huge cult following.
Are you sad to hear that an unrelated movie ended up being the death of ‘TRON 3’? Do you think the rumored ‘Tron’ reboot option is the preferred way to go at this point? Share your thoughts below!