They could maybe try writing a good story for once.
this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2025
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Disney needs to stop trying to re-write popular IPs. It's one thing to build on legacy material...but they never seem to be able to do that. They have this obsession with burning shit to the ground, and building some cheap knock-off version on top of it. Fans don't typically like that.
Tron is the opposite of a popular IP. None of the 3 Tron movies have been a hit.
Tron is barely a character in his own sequel. I hear he’s not even the newest one. Tron just means electronic music saturated colors.
Just because something didn't do well in theaters, doesn't mean it isn't popular. The 1st two movies and the animated series tying them together, have a massive cult following.
Is it a massive cult following? I think there’s just a loud but relatively small community online that has never translated to making any Tron film successful.
Well when you play fast and loose with the definition of "successful" you can make this same argument about any film. In this instance you're choosing to narrowly define success as "box office revenue," but we all know plenty of films that flopped in theaters and blew up big after the fact. This film flopping in 2025 can easily be attributed to the terrible lead they chose who has ruined film after film in recent memory, but that has no bearing on how people feel about the franchise as a whole.
Successfully for a movie usually means financial success in addition to critical and audience reviews. None of the Tron movies are successful. All of them have flopped financially.
The only reason the two sequels exist is because Disney is creatively bankrupt. Their trash live-action remakes of all their animated movies have more audience than the Tron sequels.
Massive cult following..you mean like a majority of people who like and know about TRON? I'd say no
Just because something didn't do well in theaters, doesn't mean it isn't popular.
Uhh yes it does. That is exactly what it means.
Try not casting for the name and cast for the part.
People don't give a shit who is in the next big blockbuster like they used to. There was a time when an Arnold movie would be awesome and we would go because it was Arnold. Now I wanna see a nobody that is cast for the character because they are good. Big names destroy the magic, when I see Jack Black is cast I instantly can't think of anything but "You don't always have to fuck her hard"
People don't give a shit who is in the next big blockbuster like they used to.
That is just not true. Star power sells.
Like when the Ballerina movie started putting Keeanu on the posters because it wasn't getting much hype.
It feels like Hollywood is 90% legacy actors at this point which is bullshit. Let new talent in!
Honestly I would go to pretty much any Tron movie of any quality, the fact it was a Jared Leto vehicle completely turned me off. You found the one edge case somehow.
I love the IP and the original movie. I thought the second movie was better than I expected, but still not as good as it could have been. Tron's not even in this one, which seems like such a stupid, unnecessary thing to do. I'll watch it eventually and probably think it's OK, but I'm not going to spend any money on it.
He wasn’t really in the second one either.
Is Lemmy a bubble when it comes to Leto? I've lost my bearings. I see consistent dislike for Leto here on Lemmy, which I agree with, but wonder what normal, not-chronically-online people think of him. It certainly feels like a strong enough dislike for him that Disney should have caught a whiff of it much earlier. Surely they market test the shit out of their potential leads before selecting them?
I doubt Leto was the breaking point for why this Tron was unsuccessful, but it certainly didn't help.
I can tell you my dislike for Leto predates my time using Lemmy. I don't imagine your average Joe really registers his existence.
Maybe ask that outside of Lemmy?
There might be no true consensus there. 80% of people probably just recognise the face and/or name, which is what makes him "bankable" despite the fact that the other 20% will have an actual opinion about him. Only a subset of those will feel the need to comment online.
The takeaway is that society safely ignores the commentariat most of the time on most issues. If you want to move the needle with the majority of people who don't pay attention to anything, you'll have to spend "Tron sequel advert money"
Celebrity at a certain point is self fulfilling and is a common thing where they get used a bunch simply because of their fame rather than ability.
I saw it. It was OK. Pretty visuals, meh soundtrack, and Jared Leto. I can't remember the story except in broad arcs. The problem for me is that it wasn't a sequel to the previous one. Like, why start new storylines after they left open some good ones? Completely missed the target. It's worth a watch on streaming but not for big money in a theater.
I've said it before but the story just wasn't good. the soundtrack was meh, I mean it's not even a good NIN album and if were to stand on it's own it would likely be considered the worst NIN album.
All they had to do, story wise, was just follow up Legacy. That's it. They could have just made it a redemption story for Tron who would not only be again "fighting for the user" but also for the ISOs. Have Sam and Quorra go back to the grid to finally save Flynn, help Tron, and bring the ISOs to the real world or simply make the grid a peaceful place for the ISOs and have Tron become the grids leader. whatever. that's all they had to do. Hell they could have had it mirror god damn Steve Jobs and his return to Apple because THAT's what it felt like they were setting up in Legacy. I know that's silly but that was the path they were heading down. They didn't need Dillinger and all that.
the thing that made Tron and it's various spinoffs work is that at the end of the day there's a user that is hailed as a sort of God that tries to fix things on the grid. There is no User in Ares. hell there's no Tron in Ares.
Tron is a showcase of how fucking god awful Disney are at making movies for boy/young men. That was the problem in the 80s, in the 2010 movie and today. They bought Marvel and Star Wars, and have over time chased away the boys/men to the point that its reported that they are now looking for another franchise to buy to get back the gen z market. Which is fucking insane. I mean, its Star Wars, ffs. Its Marvel, and while they havnt cracked Tron, there something there that can truly be considered a solid base for a franchise. It just needs the right people to really make it work.
If you want to make movies for boys/young men, then do so. Lean in to it, and give them something that captures their hearts and minds like Star Wars did 48 years ago. I dont know who Ares was for, but it wasnt boys/young men. If anything, it was a Leto vanity project. That took a minor character from the Tron legacy sequel, and turned him into the main character. So instead of more Sam and Quorra and exploring their story and the themes of life and death within the digital realm, we get AI, 3D printers and smug cult leader trying desperately to become a leading man.
10/10