'Tron's Legacy of Failure

Was the failure of Tron: Ares inevitable by virtue of Tron never being an A-level franchise? Or is the box office decimation of Disney’s $180 million threequel a matter of the specific choices made for what became this past weekend’s little-loved and little-seen would-be tentpole? Maybe Disney should have said “No” to Jared Leto’s self-aggrandizing pitch and cast a younger or at least more popular older actor to anchor a big-deal franchise entry. No matter, there’s plenty of Tron discourse as Kirsten Acuna (the coolest entertainment staff editor at People Magazine) and Aaron Neuwirth (the second-coolest host of 2 Black Guys Talk Godzilla) pull another two-for-one guest hosting shift. It’s another Power Rangers-worthy (two minorities, two women and one generic white guy arbitrarily in charge) line-up, which I suppose makes sense since it seemingly took Tron 3 a thousand years to become “free” even if it absolutely failed to conquer Earth. Get full access to The Outside Scoop at scottmendelson.substack.com/subscribe