TRON: Legacy landed in theaters 28 years after the original TRON‘s debut, with Legacy director Joseph Kosinski recently confirming that a follow-up film is still possible, but detailed that it’s more important to find a reason to make a third film in the series than it is to rush out a project that isn’t a worthy entry into the series. At the time that each film was released, they pushed special effects to the absolute limit, with it being possible that fans would have a long wait ahead of them as Disney finds the right combination of story, storyteller, and special effects to make a third film.
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“There’s always been an interest since Legacy [for a sequel]. There’s always been talk and murmuring of doing another and continuing the story,” Kosinski shared with ComicBook.com. “I was in China a few years ago and saw them building the TRON ride in Shanghai, which, apparently, is pretty amazing, I would love to experience that at some point. I think it’s still a nice jewel in the crown of Disney IP and I think there are fans and people petitioning and pushing to continue it inside the halls of Disney. So I think it could happen. Like anything, it just needs the right confluence of … it’s all about timing and the right elements and everything’s got to come together for a movie to happen. I think it’s possible and I think it’s worthy of it. I think there’s enough ideas in the franchise, and the fact that it is so unique and nothing else looks or sounds like it, that TRON story. There is, I think, a future for the franchise and I hope they keep making them.”
Debuting in 2012, fans were at least somewhat satiated with the animated TRON: Uprising series, which connected the events of the two live-action movies. Kosinski has offered a handful of updates about the planned third film, TRON: Ascension, with the filmmaker having previously revealed that Jared Leto had expressed interest and we would likely have seen Cillian Murphy’s Edward Dillinger, Jr. return.
The nature of the mythology and its connection to the computer world means that, in addition to finding the right story, the visual effects of a new TRON would need to be as ambitious as the first two films.
“Whenever a TRON comes out, it needs to push the envelope in some way, or in every way,” the filmmaker added. “That’s a fundamental requirement of a TRON movie, is it needs to be ambitious on a filmmaking level and hopefully on a narrative level, and the ideas behind it. [Director] Steven Lisberger’s ideas for the first movie were so ahead of their time. I think it’s imperative that that be a part of any TRON movie. I don’t ever see TRON being something where you pump one out every two years. You just can’t. They’re too hard to make. It’s got to be a passion project and it’s got to really be reaching for something different and innovative and ambitious, because that’s in the DNA of it.”
Kosinski’s next film, Top Gun: Maverick, is set to hit theaters on December 23rd.
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