Will We Ever See A Tron 3?

Bruce Boxleitner thinks it may be “end of line” for the franchise.

Tron Legacy may not have been a great movie, but it was well shot, the art direction was fantastic, had a great soundtrack, and had a lot of interesting ideas at play. The spin off show, Tron: Uprising, was also fantastic with great writing and a talented cast… until it was cancelled.

Many people really enjoyed the new resurgence of Tron and were eagerly awaiting the third cinematic entry in the franchise… which by all accounts seem to be ready to go into production by the end of 2015 with Olivia Wilde, Garrett Hedlund, and Joseph Kosinksi all returning.

Then, out of nowhere, Disney pulled the plug. Some blamed Tomorrowland, others never thought it would happen in the first place, but whatever the reason for the cancellation many were heartbroken. So much so that they started a petition to revive the film that has thusfar gained more than 42,000 signatures.

So, is there any hope of the movie being revived?

Tron himself, Bruce Boxleitner, was recently interviewed by Slashfilm and seems to think the franchise is over:

“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.

[I was] very much surprised [by the cancellation]. Not that I was privy to anything, but once in a while I got little snippets of information. Since we shoot Cedar Cove in Vancouver, I did hear a lot from up there. There’s several publications and blogs that are about what jobs are coming, what films are in preproduction, stuff like that. TRON was always on those lists. They were very close to actually shooting.

It breaks my heart, but I understand the times move on. Disney, it’s not in their [wheelhouse] anymore. The animated series [had] a lot of promise, they didn’t stick with that either. I don’t think they really want it anymore. I think 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.”

That’s pretty grim.

It is, isn’t it? Unfortunately, Boxleitner seems to be correct that Disney is focusing more on Marvel and Star Wars now. The simple fact of the matter is that they don’t need Tron has a mega franchise which is both disappointing and disheartening. Tron Legacy had a lot of imagination to it and felt very unique among today’s blockbusters. It’s a shame we won’t be getting another any time soon.