‘Tron 3’ Director Says Marvel and Star Wars Helped Kill the Sequel: It Was ‘Storyboarded and Written’

variety.com:

Zack Sharf Joseph Kosinski is flying high off the success of “Top Gun: Maverick,” which debuted to a record-breaking $160 million over the Memorial Day weekend frame.

The sequel is the first bonafide box office success for the director, who started his feature directorial career with Disney’s “Tron: Legacy.” That sequel earned $400 million worldwide, but that sum wasn’t enough for Disney to allow Kosinski to pursue an intended sequel under the title “Tron: Ascension.”In a new interview with Vulture, Kosinski confirmed he had storyboarded and written the entire third “Tron” movie when Disney pulled the plug on the project in 2015.

As the filmmaker said, “I got so close. I really tried.”  Kosinski’s idea for “Tron 3” was to invert the franchise’s core structure.

Instead of human characters being sucked into a video game world, the video game world would bleed into the real world and the film would be “about the blending of the two.” “But it was a different Disney by 2015,” Kosinski said about why the project died. “When I made ‘Tron: Legacy,’ they didn’t own Marvel; they didn’t own ‘Star Wars.’ We were the play for fantasy and science fiction.