Joseph Kosinski Gives Update On ‘Tron 3’

Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski has an update on that potential Tron threequel, and fans of the series won’t be happy to hear it.

Speaking with ComingSoon about his latest directorial effort, Only the Brave, Kosinski said the tentatively titled Tron: Ascension tapped out at the scripting stage. Fans of the franchise have been more hopeful about another Tron ever since it was learned Suicide Squad star Jared Leto was eyeing a proposed reboot that was “being built out of the source code of the deleted Tron 3 script.” There, Leto would play “Ares,” a new character who was a “key player” in the Ascension script.
“Jared and I had actually been talking about Tron since Tron: Legacy back in 2009,” Kosinski said. “We almost put him in that movie, actually in [the End of Line club scene]! So Jared’s a huge fan and we actually batted around ideas and I was talking to him about that role in Ascension, but we only got to the script stage on that. We never really moved beyond that and that’s sort of where it sits for now.”

Leto weighed in on the potential project earlier this month, remarking that a Tron movie is a priority for him but noting it’s all very much in the earliest stages of development.

“It’s something that we’re in discussions about and very much looking forward to bringing to reality,” Leto said. “It’s very early days, though.”

If he’s had Tron in mind as far back as 2009 — Tron: Legacy hit theaters in 2010 — you can believe the actor when he says he wants to jump into the Grid.

“[Tron] was a huge movie for me as well and I do think there’s so much potential in that world, there so much left to be said,” Leto shared. “I’m absolutely game to try to help in any way that I can bring that to life.”

Tron doesn’t seem to be a priority for Disney, who has been absolutely dominating the box office the last few years with heavy hitters from their Marvel, Star Wars and live-action fairy tale franchises. Disney is on a completely different level from where they were in 2010, and they could view another Tron as an unnecessary expenditure following the lackluster performance of Tron: Legacy and the equally dull performances of non-franchise productions like John Carter and Tomorrowland, two big budget sci-fi flicks that both lacked the “built-in audience” that come with the output of Marvel Studios or Lucasfilm.

Still, with the technological advancements made since 2010, another Tron has the potential to change the game. We’ll keep hoping.

Kosinski’s Only the Brave is now playing, and the director will next reunite with his Oblivion star Tom Cruise for 2019’s Top Gun: Maverick. Leto most recently co-starred in Blade Runner 2049 and is expected to reprise his role as the Joker in a Joker/Harley Quinn spinoff movie and Suicide Squad 2 for Warner Bros.