‘Tron: Ares’ Could Be Setting Fans Up For Disappointment, And Itself Up For Box Office Failure
The debut of Tron: Ares in theaters is less than a month away, which is surreal when you consider it took 15 years for the film to reach screens.
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In that time, there were numerous changes made to the script, plus a few swaps of the director, while production halted. Now, it’s firmly a Jared Leto movie (at a time when that’s not exactly germane) with one prominent connection to its predecessor, Tron: Legacy, the returning Jeff Bridges.
The director, Joachim Rønning, explained how this came to be in SFX Magazine. “These things are not only creative choices; sometimes actors don’t want to be in it anymore,” he said (via Games Radar). Rønning’s remark is likely in reference to Bruce Boxleitner (the actor who played the actual character, Tron, in two films).
Boxleitner declared to Slash Film in 2015 that he was “done with it” when the third film’s hiatus was in its fifth year. “I don’t really care anymore,” he said. “I’m done with it. I’ve moved on. I hate to say that, but it’s been too up and down for me. I would rather not just keep going. I don’t want to repeat my career anymore.”
He later clarified that he was “done waiting” on Disney, but not with the franchise. The actor still attends convention panels and promotional appearances related to Tron. However, he has made peace with not appearing in the latest entry and wishes everyone involved luck on X.
Producer Justin Springer also preferred to move on instead of giving fan service for the sake of it (in his view). “We’re telling a story that’s 14 years later, and the most important thing is that we tell this new story in a way that works,” he said in SFX.
“To just throw cameos in, where it’s a parade of people that we love from this franchise, I just feel like it’s fan service that doesn’t serve the story. But we are definitely focused on ways to surprise the audience,” Springer continued.
As a producer of spinoffs such as Tron: Uprising, he is willing to make things up to fans later in the next piece of content, if there is one.
“If we don’t touch something in this movie, I always think about where else we can play. I produced the animated series [Tron: Uprising] and I worked on the theme park rides. There are all sorts of different ways to keep the mythology alive, whether that be in a film or a series or whatever, if we’re so lucky,” Springer said.
Devoted Tron fans, including YouTubers Dave Cullen and Nerd Cookies, aren’t encouraged by what Springer and Rønning had to say. Self-proclaimed true-blue diehard users are reading between the lines on the grid and see Ares as dead on arrival.
A lack of faith in the filmmakers’ choice to go with Jared Leto as an unknown character is growing. Moreover, admiration for Tron: Legacy is also on the rise, but a conscious decision is being made to steer clear of the road that film paved. Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde aren’t returning, though in her case, fans will probably shrug.
Still, Boxleitner won’t be there, which means a Tron film without Tron. Springer, Rønning, and Disney seem like they care more about the IP’s potential than the actual continuity because of that. How big a deal this aspect proves to be will play out at the box office, but the projections might tell the story, or spin it.
Tron: Ares could rake in at least $44 million in its first weekend, which is the same number Legacy managed 15 years ago. This tally is looked upon as positive, but there is an issue even if the film can reach that figure.
As YouTube’s Mr. H Reviews points out, Ares doing Legacy numbers is not a win when adjusted for inflation, ticket prices, or a waning interest. A decade and half between installments is a long time – too long for most franchises that aren’t Avatar.
Mr. H Reviews predicts Tron: Ares will lose money, which he considers a shame. The interest should be there when the cyberpunk futurism of Tron is hypothetically more relevant than ever, but it doesn’t seem that way.
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