Next year marks the 40th anniversary of Tron‘s release, and in that time we’ve seen precisely one sequel, which arrived over a decade ago and didn’t perform well enough at the box office to merit a direct follow up. In fact, for a long time it looked as though Joseph Kosinski’s Legacy marked the end of the franchise for good.
It’s gone down in Hollywood folklore that Kosinski’s third installment was effectively nuked by Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland flopping at the box office, with the Disney brass deciding that taking risks on properties that were either brand new or still largely unproven wasn’t a gamble they were willing to make on a regular basis given the potential losses that could be incurred.
However, Tron: Ares was officially entered into development last year, with Jared Leto hitting the gym hard to play the lead role. Garth Davis is directing, with the most recent draft of the script having been penned by Jesse Wigutow, while The Disinsider claim to have uncovered some new images that hint cameras could begin rolling soon.
It hasn’t been confirmed by Disney as of yet, so we’ll just have to wait and see if Tron: Ares is indeed set to kick off in the first quarter of 2022, which could realistically position it as one of the Mouse House’s marquee holiday 2023 titles.