What Tron 3 Should Be About

Though it’s been almost a decade since TRON: LEGACY ended a much longer drought between sequels, there are some that still hold onto hope that the adventures of Sam Flynn and the digital world will be reactivated for TRON 3 in the near future.

One such person is one of TRON: LEGACY’s producers, Justin Springer, who has recently gone on record as stating he’ll never stop fighting for the fans who want to see it happen.

But what would TRON 3 be about?

Seeing as it’s been on ice for so long, some might think it’d take quite a while to develop a new story, but there’s already some pretty easy threads to pull in order to make that a fitting capper to the trilogy of films that started with 1982’s TRON.

TRON: LEGACY director Joseph Kosinski has also been known to hold out hope for TRON 3, and he had previously laid out a pretty awesome stepping stone for what the film, previously known as TRON: ASCENSION, would be about.

The short, short version is that not only would Sam and Quorra’s relationship be fleshed out — with Olivia Wilde’s last of the ISOs learning about our world — but also an invasion would be launched by forces from within the world of the Grid, with intent on crossing over into our world.

Now that’s a fine and dandy prospect, as the building blocks are certainly there. But where TRON 3 could really shine is in its villain. While Kevin Flynn’s evil digital twin, Clu, could always come back, there’s an even greater threat to the Flynn legacy that was set up in TRON: LEGACY’s theatrical and home video release. That threat is the Dillinger family, with David Warner’s Ed Dillinger and Cillian Murphy’s Ed Dillinger Jr. both being invoked as a presumed setup for TRON 3.

Though the son served as a golden boy to the newer, more corporate setup that ENCOM ran with in TRON: LEGACY, his toadying ways probably ended the moment Sam Flynn took back control of the company he rightfully owned. And with both of the Dillingers planning something vague but threatening, and most likely to do with the ENCOM power structure, it’d be a much better idea to settle the Dillinger-Flynn rivalry once and for all — meaning, the big bads should be Edward Dillinger, his son and, of course, a newly revamped/much deadlier Master Control Program sitting at the head of that digital invasion.

This would not only tie into the MCP’s previous attempts to try and meddle with the outside world in TRON, but it would also use all of the breadcrumbs that were laid out by TRON: LEGACY and its special features epilogue. However, if we’re going to have this end-all-be-all clash between sons, we should also have the ultimate stand off against the competing legacies of the Flynn and Dillinger families — which means it's time to bring back Kevin Flynn, even if it's just as a digital copy, for one last time.

So, putting it all together, TRON 3 should be about the legacies of the houses of Flynn and Dillinger and their big fight for control of both the digital and physical worlds. With a gigantic invasion of our world by the MCP and its digital army, everything would be on the line, and the series could end leaving it all on the field.

Whether or not we actually get a TRON 3 is something that's naturally open for discussion, but at the very least, there's a clear direction that could be taken to close out the franchise in a grand, spectacular fashion.