'Tron 3' News: Sequel Cancelled by Disney

By Liezl Dunuan, Christian Post Contributor Tuesday, June 02, 2015

The third installment to the "Tron" series of movies is not happening after all. Earlier this year, reports indicated that Disney was making some movement forward for the movie. It had a lead cast assembled and a director identified. It even had a tentative movie title: "Tron: Ascension."

But if recent reports are true, "Tron 3" may never happen at all. According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, the movie was never given a greenlight by Disney in the first place. Despite this, it was reported that Joseph Kosinski was helming the project for a second time and that previous lead stars Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde were reprising their roles in the film. Preparation had been underway for the film's production to start in the fall of this year, reportedly in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Another report in Cinema Blend says that the film's producers wanted to bring in Jared Leto, but this too did not materialize. The report also notes that Disney's recent decision is quite sudden given that much has already been done prior to the start of production. It also mentioned that a possible storyline was already being explored with the character Quora, who is an algorithm existing in the Grid but wants to live in the "real world."

In the previous movie "Tron: Legacy," Garrett Hedlund plays the son of the computer programmer played by Jeff Bridges, who goes to the Grid to find his father who is apparently in trouble. He encounters many obstacles and enemies along the way and is helped along by a warrior algorithm-turned-flesh, Quora.

When "Legacy" was released, it had modest earnings in the box office. However, Disney's recent live-action adaptations of fairy tale stories for example, have made it big worldwide. It's most recent release, "Tomorrowland," is much closer to the genre of "Tron." One reason for the cancellation of "Tron 3" could be because Disney may have been concerned with the performance of "Tomorrowland" performance at the box office, according to THR.