Tron 3, the sequel to 2010’s Tron: Legacy, was announced earlier this year with a lot of questions. Why?, chiefly among them. Also, would any of the original cast return? It was originally announced that Jeff Bridges would likely not be coming back, but would Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde return? Today, we have some confirmation as Disney has announced that Hedlund and Wilde will reprise their roles from Tron: Legacy, joining director Joseph Kosinski on the upcoming sequel.

While the news isn't entirely surprising — both Hedlund and Wilde had sequel options built into their original contract — it wasn't clear exactly where Kosinski would take Tron 3. Would it follow a different set of characters completely? Hedlund and Wilde had always expressed interest in returning publicly, but over the past two years it looked like that would never happen. Tron: Legacy was supposed to relaunch the franchise and be the start of a new universe, but the film never really caught on with the public (despite grossing over $400 million worldwide). Even an animated Tron series was canceled after one season due to a lack of viewership.

So, why come back?

While promoting Oblivion in 2013, Kosinski said he had an idea for the next Tron film that would be the Empire Strikes Back of the Tron franchise. Huh. Please, go on.

We’ve been talking about it for a couple years and there’s always been this idea, a big idea, in the back of my head that we’ve been talking about. The idea itself, the notion of what the next Tron could be, is exciting enough that it would be worth going back to do it. I’ve said it would have to be our Empire Strikes Back for me to come back and for me to pull the whole team back together and I think we do have that idea.

Well, best of luck to them! There is more than a little skepticism that a Tron: Legacy sequel could have the same dramatic impact as The Empire Strikes Back, but we've certainly been wrong before. Kosinski has proven himself to be a supremely talented visual director, we only hope he's got the epic story he thinks he does.

Filming on Tron 3 is expected to begin this fall in Vancouver.

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