In news certain to come as a setback to business leaders in the fields of neon lights, silver make-up, and dull, metaphor-laden speeches, Disney has pulled the plug on a potential Tron 3. While plans for a sequel to 2010’s Tron: Legacy had never been explicitly confirmed by the studio, it had long been assumed that stars Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde, along with director Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion), would eventually return for another outing on the Game Grid. It was less clear whether original Tron actors Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner would also appear in the planned film—or whether Disney would tempt fate and unleash the horrors of Virtual Jeff Bridges on the world again—but that point is now apparently moot. (Virtu-Jeff has presumably been destroyed, as per the Geneva Convention’s strict limitations on simulated Bridges-based life.)
The Hollywood Reporter speculates that at least part of the motivation for the cancellation was the muted reception Memorial Day audiences gave Tomorrowland, the company’s latest foray into live-action science fiction. (Although the film opened at No. 1 at the box office, it beat the two-week old Pitch Perfect 2 by a mere $3 million margin.) Tron: Legacy was a moderate success for Disney, but executives may have come down with a case of Space Paranoids regarding audiences’ willingness to shell out for yet another high-concept science fiction film from the studio. (Other Disney live-action projects, including Beauty And The Beast and The Jungle Book, remain on track.)
In other, sadder, news, this probably means that the Tron 3 soundtrack has also been canceled, depriving the world of new and excellent music from the likes of Daft Punk and The Glitch Mob. Daft Punk hasn’t been approached for comment on the story, but if they were, we’d like to imagine they’d say, “Mmmf mmmmm mmmf mmmf,” too sad to even try to lift up their robotic heads and speak.