The New TRON Sequel with Jared Leto Lands LION Director Garth Davis

The next installment of Tron, which Jared Leto is set to star in, has landed a director. I was hoping to see Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski come back, but that’s not happening. Instead, the film will be helmed by Garth Davis, the director of the wonderful 2016 film Lion.

I actually really loved Lion. It told a beautiful story and it’s great to see Disney bring in a talented storyteller for the next Tron movie. The film would mark Davis’ first big-budget tentpole film and according to Deadline, “Davis aggressively pursued the job, eventually winning over execs.” Good for him!

The most recent draft of the script for the film was written Jesse Wigutow and Leto is also on board as a producer. The film hasn’t been given the official greenlight yet, but it’s in development and on the road to becoming a reality.

It was previously reported that the new film may not be a reboot, it will be more of a sequel and we could see the cast from Tron: Legacy return. That’s just a rumor, though.

There is no information on if this will be the same story that was being planned for the canceled third Tron film, Tron: Ascension. That movie would have seen the machine world of The Grid invade the real world. It was also rumored to have featured a character named Ares, a character that Leto might be playing.

When previously talking about this story, the previously attached director opened up about the story for the sequel, saying:

"The movie was called, 'TRON: Ascension'… 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. So we hinted at that at the end of Legacy with Quorra coming out, but 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. But there’s also a really interesting character study in Quorra and a 'Stranger in a Strange Land,' trying to figure out where she belongs having lived in the real world for a few years, and where does she fit in."

He went on to explain what Quorra would have been able to do in the real world as the first digital human hybrid:

"I don’t see them having superpowers. I don’t see them being able to shoot lasers from their eyes or do what I would consider to be a superhero-type movie. But in her DNA itself, her being the first digital-human hybrid, there’s something in her being that allows objects from inside the Grid to exist in the real world and makes them permanent, so that was the idea. So I think the idea is strong, it’s just a matter of the right time and the right place and the stars aligning as they have to do for movies."

Again, we have no idea if this is the direction that the next Tron movie will go, but with the new director attached, I’m very curious to see what he is planning. It’s exciting to see that this third Tron movie is moving actually forward!