TRON: LEGACY Screenwriters Talk TRON 3 (Spoilers)
In December 2010, Walt Disney Pictures released a sequel to their 28-year-old Tron entitled Tron: Legacy. The film starred Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner, reprising their roles as Kevin Flynn and Alan Bradley/Tron, respectively, and featured Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Beau Garrett and Michael Sheen. Although it made $400 million worldwide, the film didn't quite get the game-changing reaction Disney wanted. Undeterred, Disney started work on an animated series, Tron: Uprising, featuring the voices of Elijah Wood, Lance Henrikson, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Mandy Moore, Paul Reubens, Nate Corddry, Reginald VelJohnson, and Boxleitner. However, a sequel to Tron: Legacy has been quietly in the works for some time now, and the screenwriters of Legacy (now showrunners of Once Upon a Time), Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, have spoken about a third Tron film.
Though they are not writing the film due to their obligations to Once Upon a Time, Kitsis and Horowitz will be producers on the third Tron. "Dave DiGilio is writing it. [Joseph Kosinski] is right now shooting Oblivion, but we've had a lot of meetings and conversations and we've seen the first draft of the Tron sequel."
SPOILERS!
One notable event in Tron: Legacy is the re-integration of Kevin Flynn and CLU and their supposed death. Leading up to Legacy, Kosinski and the writers have said Bridges was the key to getting the film made. A Tron film made without his involvement would be highly risky. When asked about Bridges in a third Tron, Horowitz said, "I would say the definition of life and death in the digital realm--" and was interrupted by Kitsis, "--will be explored in the sequel!" So could Tron 3 follow in the footsteps of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and have Sam Flynn go back into the grid to resurrect his father? I'd sure be excited. In the same interview, Horowitz was asked if Olivia Wilde's character Quorra would appear in the film. Before he answered, he whisked himself away to another roundtable interview. I'm not sure why Quorra WOULDN'T appear in Tron 3, given that she was brought into the real world with Sam. A digital character in our universe is too good a concept to ignore in a Tron film. I just hope Disney won't make the dire mistake of not rehiring the fantastic Daft Punk to score the film.
In one Disney podcast I listen to, "Magical Definition Podcast" (http://www.magicaldefinition.com), Disney insider Jim Hill says that a third Tron film hinges on the success of Tron: Uprising, premiering sometime this year. Disney has been reportedly amazed at the look of the series and the testing has been very good. This could very well be Disney XD's answer to Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Hill has also said that Disney is looking at the Tron franchise as a new trilogy in itself - Tron: Legacy being the first in a new trio of films. Are you ready to go back to the Grid?