Joseph Kosinski no longer needs the Tron saga: currently.
his Top Gun: Maverick is depopulating in cinemas all over the world, and his partnership with Tom Cruise , which began with Oblivion, will soon take him to space to shoot a film about ISS. Yet, it is precisely in the Tron saga that Kosinski was the birthplace of him. The director made his debut with Tron: Legacy , a sequel to Tron released almost thirty years after the original. A moderately successful film: costing $ 170 million, grossing $ 400 million. Enough to recoup the costs, not enough to guarantee a 100% sequel.
Disney considered for some time the hypothesis of making a third film, which should have been titled Tron: Ascension and which Kosinski himself should have directed. The project was eventually canceled. And the director thinks he knows why: the “fault” was Marvel and Star Wars .
Speaking with Vulture, Kosinski said:
I got so close. I tried hard. I got close in 2015 and Disney pulled the plug. I hadn’t built anything, but I had the storyboards and script of the film ready. I was very excited because I would have reversed the idea: [ Tron ‘s ] world would enter our world and the two worlds would merge.
Disney’s attitude changed around 2015, a few years after the acquisition of Marvel (2009) and Lucasfilm (2012). Suddenly, developing films from those universes became the studio’s priority:
Once you have those other things in your stable, it makes sense to invest money in known properties and not the wacky art student with black nail polish in the corner. That was Tron .
Kosinski still praised Disney for betting on Tron: Legacy :
Propose to Disney at the time to make a $ 150 million film with a first-time director, a first-time production designer, actors who had never made a big movie before and the soundtrack of a French electronic duo [the Daft Punk] who he made dance music and wore robot costumes… I mean, I really can’t believe they said yes. I don’t think that movie would be made today.