Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney for the past 15 years, has recently stepped down from his post. Bob Chapek is taking over. But Iger is not leaving Disney entirely, he’s moving toward restructuring their streaming services Disney+ and Hulu. And one of the many of the projects being moved and/or lost in the shuffle is one that wasn’t public until now is a proposed Tron series.
The 1982 sci-fi film revolving around a computer programmer trapped inside a vicious computer game – which spawned the very pretty 2010 sequel Tron: Legacy and a 2012-2013 animated series – almost inspired a new Disney+ series. The project was reportedly headed up by John Ridley, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of 12 Years A Slave.
Ridley set up the project through his overall ABC Studios deal. The show was never announced publicly, and fell apart before even getting the chance to be greenlit. This is probably the kind of situation Iger will be trying to smooth over now that he’s overseeing Disney+ content.
While we don’t know what the series would have been about, a Collider interview with Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski back in 2017 revolving around the aborted movie follow-up could give us some idea of where the story could have been taken:
The aborted film sequel would have been called Tron: Ascension. Kosinski said Disney didn’t necessarily cancel the film outright, instead saying it was in “cryogenic freeze”.
“I think we got the script to about 80%. We were in good shape”, he said. “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”.
That sounds tantalising, and would have surely looked great on the big screen. However, it’s hard to think that this plot – with the sort of budget it would have needed – would have been the basis of the Disney+ show though.
Still, even though the Tron series is dead right now, it could easily be revived. Fan demand or a similar series or film bringing in big audiences could easily lead to Iger bringing the idea for the series back. In the world of streaming wars, where brands need infinite content to survive, no idea is ever truly dead.
#Peace.Love.Tron
