Back in 2010, the Tron franchise looked like it was going to be a 'thing'. Though Joseph Kosinski's long awaited sequel wasn't, largely speaking critically well received, it still went on to gross $397M worldwide.

And according to Kosinski, it was all ready to rock a third part. Talking to Collider at a Tron: Legacy screening the director explained that Tron: Ascension was nearing a start date before Disney bought Marvel and Lucasfilm, and suddenly found themselves with a whole array of sci-fi movies that took priority.

But according to Kosinski, that doesn't mean the project is dead.

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"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," he explained.

Here's what he said about the direction they'd planned to take on the third instalment, which was planned as "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.

Disney

"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."

The plan was to bring back both Olivia Wilde's Quorra and Garett Hedlund's Sam Flynn for the third Tron movie.

"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," Kosinski said.

"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."

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