It’s learned that Disney is in early talks with Jared Leto for a Tron reboot.
THR reports no script or director is attached to the Tron reboot as of yet, but Tron: Legacy and Oblivion producer, Justin Springer, is on board the project along with Leto as producer if the movie does move forward.
It’s said the new Jared Leto Tron movie will not be a direct sequel to the previous Tron movies, but the story is being based on the Tron 3 script, with Leto playing a character names Ares.
It’s also reported it’s too early to tell if director Joseph Kosinksi or another of the actors from the previous Tron films will return.
Tron 3, which was to be titled “Tron: Ascension,” was in early production when Disney cancelled the movie. Kosinksi recently told Collider about the plot, which would have seen the digital characters crossing over into the real world:
The movie was called, “TRON: Ascension”, I think that’s out there. I think we got the script to about 80%. We were in good shape. We were probably eight or nine months out, which is still a good amount of distance from being ready to shoot it, but I think the script was in good shape. What I’m excited about is the concept, which is an invasion movie from inside the machine coming out as opposed to one we’ve usually seen. So we hinted at that at the end of Legacy with Quorra coming out, but the idea for Ascension was a movie that was, the first act was in the real world, the second act was in the world of TRON, or multiple worlds of TRON, and the third act was totally in the real world. And I think that really opens up, blows open the concept of TRON in a way that would be thrilling to see on screen. But there’s also a really interesting character study in Quorra and a “Stranger in a Strange Land,” trying to figure out where she belongs having lived in the real world for a few years, and where does she fit in.
I don’t see them having superpowers. I don’t see them being able to shoot lasers from their eyes or do what I would consider to be a superhero-type movie. But in her DNA itself, her being the first digital-human hybrid, there’s something in her being that allows objects from inside the Grid to exist in the real world and makes them permanent, so that was the idea. So I think the idea is strong, it’s just a matter of the right time and the right place and the stars aligning as they have to do for movies.
Regarding why Disney cancelled Tron 3, Kosinksi blamed both Star Wars and Marvel and Disney’s full slate:
I guess I can say that TRON 3 is in cryogenic freeze. So, it’s there. It’s not dead. It’s alive, but it’s sitting there, waiting for the right time to move forward. I mean, you have to remember that when we made TRON: Legacy, Disney did not own Marvel. Disney did not own Lucasfilm…they own everything now. But this was before they owned everything, so from the studio point of view, they have a certain number of slots and a certain amount of money to make movies and if you can make a Star Wars spinoff or another Marvel movie, which are all doing incredibly well, a TRON movie, even though I think it would do very well, the question is: Would it do as well as one of those? That is more the reason we haven’t seen another TRON is that Disney stock is flushed with really successful properties right now. But that doesn’t mean we won’t see one at one point.