Disney is moving forward with anotherTronsequel. News of a third movie in the decades-old franchise arrives 10 years after the release ofTron: LegacystarringGarrett Hedlund,Olivia Wilde, and returningTronalumJeff Bridges. Curiosity has long swirled around a thirdTronmovie after it was greenlit followingLegacy’s release but quickly left in a stagnant state of development before it was canceled in 2015 only for rumors about it going back into development a few years later.
Now, we’re learning viaVarietytheTronsequel is going ahead withJared Letoattached to star and co-produce anddirectorGarth Davisset to helm.Jesse Wigutow(It Runs in theFamily) has written the most recent draft of the threequel’s script. Leto has long been vaguelyattached to theTronsequel, so it’s no surprise that everything is now official on this front. However, Davis is definitely an interesting choice (to put it kindly) of director considering, on the face of it all, the world ofTronis outside his wheelhouse. Davis' past two features — 2018’sMary Magdaleneand 2016’sLion—are adult dramas with no CGI tricks or special genre elements. The former takes a biopic-style lens to the life and times of biblical figure Mary Magdalene (played byRooney Mara), while the latter is adapted fromSaroo Brierley’s autobiographical “A Long Way Home” and follows one young man’s journey to find his birth parents. All things considered, tackling aTronsequel will be a big step forward in Davis' career as a director.
Deadline does note in their exclusive report Davis has been actively pursuing the gig, implying the director has a vision and way into theTronworld. If that’s the case, then color me optimistic to see what he’s planning to cook up for the continuingTronstory. Deadline additionally notes that, while this news is exciting, “insiders still stress a green light has not been given and that it’s still in development, but Davis’ involvement is a push in the right direction.”
News of Davis' attachment to theTronsequel means we must all bid farewell to the hopes of directorJoseph Kosinskireturning to direct. Kosinski helmedLegacyand had long been attached to the thirdTronmovie. The project sputtered around Disney in the years followingLegacy’s release, with Kosinski saying in 2017 themovie was in a “cryogenic freeze"and thus, signaling to fans a threequel may not have been so sure a thing.
While Kosinski is not set to return, we can’t say the same for Hedlund, Wilde, or Bridges. There are no plot details on the thirdTronmovie to spare and so, in combination withLegacy’s ending, the door is very much open when it comes to any of these actors possibly returning. Then again, whether or not any of them is actively interested in returning in another matter entirely.
I’ll also be curious to see what direction Wigutow’s draft takes theTronstory in afterLegacy’s conclusion. Back in June, Disney music executiveMitchellLeib, who worked onLegacy, spoke withLight the Fusepodcast (which, in an effort to remain transparent, is co-hosted by Collider’s ownDrewTaylor) about the state of theTronthreequel’s script: “We’ve got a great script, I mean a really phenomenal script that we’re very excited about. Whereas the timing wasn’t right to have done it years ago, I think we feel like the timing is right now, and I feel like we’ve learned a lot of lessons from that last movie.”
It’s unclear if Leib is referring to Wigutow’s script or is speaking about a previous draft, which only adds to my own curiosity about where the nextTronmovie will go from here.
UPDATE:Leto accidentally revealedTron 3’s title; check it out here.
Allie Gemmill is the Weekend Contributing Editor for Collider. You can follow them on Twitter@_matineeidle.
