The TRON franchise launched in 1982 and finally got a sequel in 2010 when filmmaker Joseph Kosinski stepped behind the camera for TRON: Legacy. Neither movie was a box office hit, but both gained cult followings, and fans spent years hoping for a threequel.
Once upon a time, that was going to be Kosinski's TRON: Ascension, a movie that languished in development hell for years until it evolved into TRON: Ares with a new lead star in Suicide Squad's Jared Leto.
That had little in common with what the Top Gun: Maverick and F1 director's vision for the franchise, and he broke his silence on TRON: Ares in a recent interview with Empire (via SFFGazette.com). As a reminder, the Joachim Rønning-helmed movie has 53% on Rotten Tomatoes and grossed only $142.2 million at the worldwide box office, making it a flop.
"I don’t really see it as a sequel," Kosinski said. "This definitely used elements of a movie I worked on, called 'Tron: Ascension,' in terms of maybe some of the set-pieces and visuals, but it really inverted the story and told it from a completely different point of view."
"So I see it more like a parallel story as opposed to a sequel. But I’m thrilled that what Steve Lisberger created in 1982 still resonates today."
TRON: Ares referenced characters and events from TRON: Legacy and ended by teasing the return of Sam and Quorra. It's interesting then that Kosinski views the movie as a separate entity, though perhaps not overly surprising given that his own threequel plans never came to fruition.
Reflecting on making the 2010 movie, the filmmaker said, "I now realise how lucky I was that Disney gave me the freedom on that film. I don’t know if that would happen today. They wanted me to go for it, hiring Daft Punk and a bunch of actors that hadn’t really done big films before, and the whole crew was very green."
"It was my first time on a film set. But in some ways, I think what makes the film so unique is that we didn’t know what the rules were. We just did it."
For many TRON fans, the hope was that Ares would be successful enough to bring them the long-awaited follow-up to Legacy. Instead, TRON: Ascension will likely go down as one of those potentially great unmade movies.
In October, a report delved into where things went wrong for TRON: Ares. "There was no specific vision, to be honest," one insider said. "The idea that Disney would spend a quarter of a billion dollars on a Jared Leto film that is a franchise that hasn’t worked in four decades is insane."
Still, despite a lack of box office success, Disney might have had other reasons for making another TRON movie. It was said that, "those close to the project believe that ultimately Tron: Ares was an advertisement for the Disney theme park rides (which was also one of the catalysts as to why Tron: Ares was made)."
TRON: Ares is now available on Digital and powers onto 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and DVD beginning January 6, 2026.