We Finally Know Why Tron 3 Never Happened

Within a digital frontier known as the Grid, computer programs take on lives of their own, and one special program has the power to reshape the world as it is known. Starring Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Bruce Boxleitner, and Michael Sheen, "Tron: Legacy" is the direct sequel to the 1982 film "Tron." The story of "Tron: Legacy" picks up several years after the disappearance of Kevin Flynn (Bridges), a legendary computer programmer and central protagonist of the original movie. "Tron: Legacy" follows his son, Sam Flynn (Hedlund), a fearless individual who avoids responsibility and enjoys tormenting some of the board members at his father's company.

However, when a friend of Sam's father, Alan Bradley (Boxleitner), receives a mysterious page on his beeper, Sam becomes entangled in a dark digital reality filled with neon accents, a malevolent program resembling his father, high-speed bikes, and the music of Daft Punk. Resolved to save his father and prevent his doppelganger from taking over both the Grid and the real world, Sam comes across both allies and enemies, and eventually escapes with Quorra (Wilde). Quorra is the last special program known as an ISO, and her nature promises to rewrite everything humanity knows about existence.

"Tron: Legacy" ends with Sam and Quorra riding a motorcycle across a bridge as the sun rises, and the film leaves several questions left unanswered: What happened to his father after the climax of the film, what will happen to the Grid, and how will Quorra change the world? Recently, "Tron: Legacy" director Joseph Kosinski answered a few questions regarding why audiences never got a chance to see the third chapter of "Tron," and the answer might surprise you.

In an interview with Vulture while promoting his latest movie, "Top Gun: Maverick," Joseph Kosinski was asked about the tentative sequel to "Tron: Legacy," called "Tron: Ascension," and what exactly happened to the film. Kosinski noted that he had "Tron: Ascension" written with a complete storyboard, and was aiming to flip the script on the previous "Tron" films by making the third entry about a digital being in the real world, as opposed to real people in the digital one. However, it seems that after Disney made some big acquisitions in the 2010s, the threequel ended up being put on the back burner in favor of more high-profile legacy properties.

"But it was a different Disney by 2015. When I made 'Tron: Legacy,' they didn't own Marvel; they didn't own 'Star Wars.' We were the play for fantasy and science fiction," Kosinski explained. He continued on to add, "And once you've got those other things under your umbrella, it makes sense that you're going to put your money into a known property and not the weird art student with black fingernails in the corner — that was 'Tron.' And that's okay."

However, it seems as if Kosinski is ultimately alright with the trajectory of his career, seeing as he's had plenty of successes in the wake of his time in the "Tron" universe. Still, it is a shame that fans never got a chance to see a third "Tron" movie. But considering the first movie ended up becoming a cult classic after its initial release, eventually culminating in a sequel decades later, perhaps there is still hope for "Tron 3" sometime in the future.