How Tron: The Next Day Short Set Up The Cancelled Third Movie

Here’s how Tron: The Next Day set up a still unmade third movie. While its effects and depiction of technology are utterly outdated to modern viewers, the original Tron remains a cult classic. This 1982 movie stars Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a game designer sucked inside a computer program who has to battle his way out. The film featured cutting edge visuals for its era and while it did respectable business during its original release, it built a solid cult in the years that followed.

A sequel finally arrived 28 years later with Tron: Legacy, which followed the son of Kevin Flynn after he’s also sucked into The Grid in search of his missing father. The sequel was praised for the superb Daft Punk score and its beautiful visuals and action sequences, though its thin story and attempts at de-aging Jeff Bridges with unconvincing CGI were commonly cited as flaws. Again, the film did solid business but despite numerous attempts at producing a third movie, another chapter has yet to materialize. Tron: Legacy has had its own legacy, as it was one of the first big legacy sequels that brought back original characters while introducing new heroes. It was also one of the first blockbusters to pioneer de-aging technology, which would become more refined in the years that followed.

The cult of Tron: Legacy has only grown but the path to another movie has been a long one. It was in active development before being cancelled in 2015, apparently due to the failure of Tomorrowland. Since 2017 Jared Leto has been linked to another soft reboot as a character called Ares, which may still be in development. Those who bought the Tron: Legacy Blu-ray back in 2011 may recall a bonus feature called Tron: The Next Day, is a ten-minute short that – as the title suggests – takes place the day after the sequel ended.

Tron: The Next Day functions as a teaser and a bridge between the events of the first and second movies. It charts what happened after Flynn disappeared in 1989 and the creation of the Flynn Lives movement by mysterious hacker ZackAttack, who narrates the short. The big reveals are saved for the end, with the hacker being revealed as Roy Kleinberg (Dan Shor), an ENCOM employee who briefly appeared in the first Tron. He created the Flynn Lives movement. with the short also revealing he was secretly funded by Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner).

Tron: The Next Day ends with Alan having been named the new ENCOM chairman, with Sam (Garrett Hedlund) briefly making an appearance as he arrives to take control of the company. The press greets him as he enters the building and he flashes his “Flynn Lives” t-shirt for them. Also of note is the mention of Ed Dillinger, Jr – played in Tron: Legacy by an uncredited Cillian Murphy – and that Alan will be keeping him on at ENCOM. He’s the son of Tron’s human villain Ed Dillinger (David Warner), and a Blu-ray easter egg sees Jr. having a computer chat with his dad, hinting at a future evil scheme.

About The Author

Padraig Cotter
(3484 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

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A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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