The director of TRON: Legacy discusses the story options for a possible franchise over multiple films.
By now, most of you have seen TRON: Legacy and, if you haven’t, you probably should if only for the eye-candy and the funky electronica soundtrack. Fans of the original 1982 film may have picked up a on a few of the threads that director Joe Kosinski added in order to keep the story going even after the conclusion of the film. Kosinski isn’t coming out and saying that he’s busy making a sequel, that depends on how TRON: Legacy fares at the box office, but he certainly knows what he might do if given the chance.
“I think the point of view of the studio is, obviously they want TRON: Legacy to be a success,” Kosinski said. “And at that point we’ll start looking at if and how the story can be continued. We’re certainly not taking anything for granted at this point.”
From here on out, I should make sure that you know that there be SPOILERS HERE.
In the first few scenes of TRON: Legacy, there is a cameo by Cillian Murphy, who you may recognize as Scarecrow from Batman Begins, playing Ed Dillinger Jr, the son of the 1982 film’s major villain. Murphy’s turn as the computer genius is the perfect detail for a possible continuation of his role in future films and that was one of Kosinski’s goals in having him appear in the TRON: Legacy.
“For the fans of the first film, we all know there’s that Dillinger storyline that’s hanging out there and I don’t think we could have just completely ignored it,” he said. “Even though it’s not the main story point of our film by any means, we all liked the idea of continuing the Dillinger legacy, [which] is only hinted at for the hardcore fans at this point.
“Obviously if we were lucky enough to go back to the world of TRON on another one, that’s a great, little branch that we’ve left ourselves to grab onto if we choose to.”
Then there’s the program TRON himself, originally played by Bruce Boxleitner, and the reveal that he is still active and under Clu’s control. At the end of Legacy, he falls into some water, seemingly no longer functioning, but then he begins to glow blue. Color being so important on the Grid, it’s possible to make the leap that TRON is alive.
“I think the TRON character himself – again, not the primary story of our film, but definitely that storyline is in there – that would be another one that would be interesting for me to explore what’s become of him in the future,” Kosinski said.
So we don’t know for certain if the TRON story will continue with more films, but, if it did, Kosinski has a few threads that he can use to advance the story. Perhaps the sequels will not have so thin of a plot and offer more than just a pretty 3D experience with some Daft Punk background music.
Source: Spinoff
