While developing and abandoning a sequel to 2010's Tron: Legacy, it seems that Disney has put into early development a remake of the 1982 original. And Jared Leto, most recently the Joker in last year's Suicide Squad, is in discussions to enter the grid.
So early are these discussions that no filmmaker is involved at this point, except for producer Justin Springer, who co-produced Tron:Legacy and served as executive producer of Oblivion. If things move forward, Leto will play a character named Ares, who was a part of the screenplay for the proposed third film, although, again, this would be a reboot rather than a sequel.
Earlier this week, Joseph Kosinksi, who directed the last film and had been developing the third, spoke with Collider about the project, which had the title Tron: Ascension, noting that the project wasn't dead, but in "cryogenic freeze." Of the plot he added, "What I'm excited about is the concept, which is an invasion movie from inside the machine coming out as opposed to one we've usually seen... The first act was in the real world, the second act was in the world of Tron, or multiple worlds of Tron, and the third act was totally in the real world. I think that really opens up, blows open, the concept of Tron in a way that would be thrilling to see on screen."
The original Tron was written and directed by Steve Lisberger, who, fascinated with video games (particularly Pong), commented, "I realized that there were these techniques that would be very suitable for bringing video games and computer visuals to the screen. And that was the moment that the whole concept flashed across my mind."
Besides Tron: Legacy, there has been the animated series Tron: Uprising in 2012, as well as numerous video games and comic book spin-offs.