Five years ago this month, news broke that Disney was looking to continue the Tron franchise with actor Jared Leto. Since then though, not much has happened. A few quotes possibly mentioning a script, a working title, but nothing set in stone. It would be easy to assume the project has left the Grid entirely. However, according to the star, that’s not the case.
“I’m a super fan of Tron, and we are working hard on Tron with our incredible partners at Disney,” Leto told Screenrant recently while promoting his new film, Morbius. “Just an amazing group of creative people. We’re getting closer. We’re getting closer and closer, and who knows? Something may be [coming] sooner than later.”
Which sounds super promising! Until you realise Tron 3 didn’t start with Jared Leto. Word of the film first leaked months before the release of Tron Legacy back in December 2010. Of course, when that film was only a moderate success, work on the sequel fizzled a bit. Then, two years later, things officially took off. Until they didn’t. Five years then passed before the Leto news and now it’s been five years again.
Maybe that’s just the right amount of time, though. Maybe Tron movies need a decade or three between them so that technology advances enough to allow each film to look and feel hyper-modern. The biggest problem with this particular time gap, however, is that Daft Punk, whose music for Tron Legacy is still a favourite among film and electronic music fans alike, broke up in 2021. That’s a big blow to a project that has already has had plenty of speed bumps.
If you’re curious about the history of Tron 3, which Leto has referred to at times as Tron: Ares, head over to this link; I did a timeline of all the times Tron 3 has started and stopped. Now add this to the mix.