"TRON: Legacy" Director Shares Why He Thinks Sequel Never Happened

In a new interview with Vulture, TRON: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski shares why he thinks that there wasn’t a sequel to his feature directorial debut.

What’s Happening:

In a new interview with Vulture celebrating his latest feature, Top Gun: Maverick, TRON: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski took a moment to share why he thinks that there wasn’t a sequel to his feature directorial debut.
Kosinski shared that not only had he had the whole film storyboarded and written, but he also shared that he was ready to invert the idea of TRON and TRON: Legacy, “It was all that stuff coming into our world, and it was about the blending of the two.”
What stopped the sequel? Kosinski says “It was a different Disney by 2015. When I made TRON: Legacy, they didn’t own Marvel; they didn’t own Star Wars. We were the play for fantasy and science fiction. And once you’ve got those other things under your umbrella, it makes sense that you’re going to put your money into a known property and not the weird art student with black fingernails in the corner — that was TRON.”
TRON: Legacy starred Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, and Michael Sheen, with original TRON stars Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner also reprising their roles as Kevin Flynn and Alan Bradley, respectively, in the sequel. Daft Punk memorably created the film’s original score as the cast of characters inhabit the “story, where Kevin Flynn got trapped in his own creation, isolated away from the internet, and it had evolved on its own like the Galápagos, disconnected from the rest of the world.”
Now over 10 years since the release of the fan-favorite sequel, TRON: Legacy is garnering cult-classic status, and is even getting its own ride at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, TRON Lightcycle / Run, which is set to be opening soon, and is itself a clone of the highly successful TRON Lightcycle Power Run at Shanghai Disneyland.
A teaser for the tentative sequel could also be found on the TRON: Legacy Blu-Ray, titled “The Next Day,” which sees Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) take over ENCOM with the help of Alan Bradley, all while wearing a shirt the reads “Flynn Lives.” Other bonus feature content alludes to a coming third film, one showing Quorra in the real world, and another showing a message exchange between who appears to be the son of Edward Dillinger and the Master Control Panel before flashing an iconic “END OF LINE.”
Rumors have consistently been circulating regarding a new TRON film, with the most recent pointing at a reboot project starring Jared Leto, but Disney has yet to publicly announce any plans for a third TRON film.
TRON and TRON: Legacy are currently streaming on Disney+.

What They’re Saying:

Joseph Kosinski, when discussing a TRON: Legacy sequel: “I got so close. I really tried. I got close in 2015, and Disney pulled the plug on it. I hadn’t built anything, but I had the whole movie storyboarded and written. I was really excited because it was inverting the idea: It was all that stuff coming into our world, and it was about the blending of the two. But it was a different Disney by 2015. When I made TRON: Legacy, they didn’t own Marvel; they didn’t own Star Wars. We were the play for fantasy and science fiction. And once you’ve got those other things under your umbrella, it makes sense that you’re going to put your money into a known property and not the weird art student with black fingernails in the corner — that was TRON. And that’s okay. Had I made TRON: Ascension, I wouldn’t have made Only the Brave, and I wouldn’t have made the movies I made. But remember, the first TRON was not a hit when it came out. It’s a cult classic. And if TRON: Legacy’s becoming the same thing, I couldn’t be more thrilled.”