Tron: Legacy came into theaters with some massive expectations resting on its pixeled shoulders. It was the long-awaited sequel to a cult hit that practically defined the computer thriller genre. Gussied up with the latest effects and shot in 3D, it was given the cushy Avatar release position in the hopes it could make the same kind of money. And while it wasn't an outright bomb, it barely made back its reported $170 million budget domestically (foreign grosses brought in an additional $225 million). A lot of money to be sure, but certainly not as much as Disney would have liked. So would there be a sequel?
Tron: Legacy was certainly planned to be one movie in a series -- after all, why would they stick a familiar face like Cillian Murphy in such an eyeblink of a role? And now a leaked extra from the upcoming DVD/Blu-ray release shows the possible bridge between Legacy and whatever might follow after.
Centered around a Banksy-esque hacker named Zack Attack, it details the chaos surrounding Kevin Flynn's disappearance and how the cult of "Flynn Lives" began. And now that Flynn's son Sam has seized the reins of Encom, the original crew from Tron begins to come out of the woodwork.
There's been no official word on a sequel yet, but this certainly sets the gears in motion. And if a sequel is in the offings, all I have to say is: No more crappy looking de-aging please! It made Jeff Bridges look like a creepy kabuki-masked mannequin, or, worse yet, the dead-eyed conductor from The Polar Express.
UPDATE (March 14, 2:19 p.m. EDT): Unsurprisingly, Disney has since pulled the video from the Web. As noted above, the short will appear among the special features on the Tron: Legacy DVD/Blu-ray, which hits the street April 5. End of line.