Disney made waves last Friday when it de-rezzed Tron 3, which had been all set to shoot this fall with Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski back behind the camera and stars Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde returning. The studio didn’t give a reason for pulling the plug, but many have speculated that the disappointing haul for Tomorrowland turned execs off pricey sci-fi, at least while they continue to plot more lucrative fairy-tale adaptations. Of course, fans aren’t just rolling over and taking this – it’s the Internet age, after all.
Fan Lucas Lowman has started a petition on Change.org to get Tron 3 back on schedule. More than 11,000 people have signed as of now, and Lowman’s goal is 15,000.
His official statement reads as follows:
Tron: Legacy grossed over 400 million dollars and helped more fully realize the world created in the original Tron. It’s a shame that Disney has elected not to move forward with a third Tron film as the universe is ripe to be explored. Sign this petition so that we may show Disney that The Grid is too great to never be shown again and to prove that Flynn lives.
Fans have also been voicing their dissatisfaction with the choice to kill Tron 3 on Twitter, with the hashtag #FlynnLives. Though it’s extremely rare for grassroots fan action like this to have an impact on a studio’s development state, it may have come as a surprise to Disney that there has been such a decisive, immediate fan backlash in the wake of its decision. And if studio execs are on the fence about whether there’s even an appetite for a third Tron movie, this could be the confirmation that they were looking for – in which case Tron 3 might not stay dead for long.
Disney will have to reverse its decision quickly, though – Hedlund, Wilde and Kosinski are likely none-too-happy about having invested their time and energy into the threequel just to have it unceremoniously axed on the eve of production, and they’re all busy people who’ll fill their schedules with other projects sooner rather than later.
Tell us, do you want to see Tron 3 happen? Or are you not as enthused as others about the prospect of going back to The Grid?