TRON Disney+ Series From John Ridley Scrapped

Until now, the content teams at Disney+ had been quietly developing a TRON series with acclaimed writer John Ridley. Now, it looks like that specific piece of original programming will end up going by the wayside. In a new feature on former Disney chief Bob Iger’s new role within the company, THR reports the streaming has scrapped the series. Ridley currently has an overall deal with ABC Studios and was developing the TRON project through that arrangement. The report claims Disney+ never officially greenlit the series, despite Ridley and his company having developed it “for several months.”

Little has been discussed of the TRON franchise since TRON: Legacy was released in 2010. At one point, Jared Leto had been attached to star in a threequel, though those plans eventually fizzled shortly thereafter. As of last March, TRON producer Justin Springer still had hopes for at least one more movie in the series.

“Look, I will never stop being interested in making a TRON movie,” Springer said. “I love the opportunity to do it. It’s a title that never really goes away internally. There’s always people around the company who like it a whole lot. And so, we’ll see what happens.”

The producer added, “It would be great to get the opportunity to do it again,” he said. “It’s interesting — what I will say is that I think it continues to be relevant both in its ideas and also just the visual iconography of it. I think people are still interested in it and it still feels contemporary to me. So it’s just about finding the right time, right script, and the right people at the studio saying ‘yes’. You know, just the usual.”

Perhaps the bigger news here is Iger’s new role focusing solely on streaming. Despite being just a few months old, Disney+ has had its fair share of growing pains after a few shows initially developed for the service were transferred to Hulu. That’s in addition to Hilary Duff publicly lobbying Disney to shift her Lizzie McGuire sequel series to Hulu.

Iger stepped down from his role as Disney chief executive last month, handing the role over to longtime Disney exec Bob Chapek. He’ll remain with the company through the end of his contract, which expires December 31, 2021.

Tron is now streaming on Disney+.