At this year’s D23 Expo, Disney made a video game announcement that absolutely nobody was expecting: it was licensing theTronIP to Bithell Games, the studio led byThomas Was Alonecreator Mike Bithell that has previously developed games such asSubsurface Circular,The Solitaire Conspiracy, andJohn Wick: Hex. Better yet, the game,Tron: Identity, will be a visual novel detective game set hundreds of years after the events of the movies, and is set to come to PC and consoles in 2023.
Given that theTronseries hasn’t seen a new cinematic entry since 2010’sTron: Legacy, and no canonical new installments since the cancelation of the animated seriesTron: Uprising, many had assumed that Disney was done with the franchise, especially given rumors of a cinematic reboot allegedly in the works. ThankfullyTronlives, and despite being set in the far-flung future, director Mike Bithell has already confirmed thatTron: Identitywill reference events from past entriesin the franchise, possibly including a few of the most important storylines.
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Tron: Legacy
The first storyline that could influenceTron: Identityseems obvious, but it actually holds a lot of potential for a story set hundreds of years later.2010’sTron: Legacystill remains one of the decade’s most underrated blockbusters and arguably ushered in the era of “legacy sequels” that are still being produced today. Set 30 years after the events of the original film, it follows the originalTrongame creator’s son, Sam Flynn, as he investigates the disappearance of his father, Kevin Flynn. He is transported into the game and searches The Grid with an ISO named Quorra to find his father and save a corrupted Tron.
Tron: Legacyshows how The Grid has shifted as a societyfollowing its freedom from ENCOM’s Master Control Program in the original film, and introducing fans to the new factions and groups that have come to power in Flynn’s absence. One such example is the End of Line Club, run by Zuse, introducing fans to the shady underworld that has manifested itself in The Grid as it grows into a functioning society.Tron Legacy’s biggest gift toTron: Identityis fleshing out the world of the series by giving fans an early look at The Grid as a developing new society, and for introducing the world to Daft Punk’s score.
Tron: Uprising
Before Sam entered The Grid to search for his father however, there wasTron: Uprising, an animated series set before the events ofTron: Legacy.Tron: Uprisingwas unfortunately short-lived, as it was canceled after its original 19-episode first season.Tron: Uprisingfollowed Beck, a young program and Light Cycle mechanic who becomes the leader of a revolution when he takes the form of Tron to fight against Clu as he maintains control of The Grid, as also seen inTron: Legacy. Beck quickly discovers that the real Tron is alive, and seeks to return hope to the denizens of The Grid so that they can fight back against Clu together.
Tron: Uprising’s unfinished nature means that the story has a lot of core elements that are still left open forTron: Identityto lift from. The show provided a clearer look into the life of The Grid’s programs under the tyrannical boot of Clu, showing how the fictional society struggled to get by, reckoning with a force similar toStar Wars' Empirein terms of power. It also fleshed out much of the world by introducing new areas and biomes previously unexplored, such as snowy and molten regions of The Grid.
Tron: Evolution
Finally, one of the lesser known parts ofTroncanon, and one that is particularly relevant toTron: Identity,Tron: Evolutionwas a cyberpunk video gamemade to tie-in with the release ofTron: Legacyin 2010. The game tells the story of how Flynn became trapped in The Grid between the events of the first and second films, following Anon, a program created by Flynn to protect The Grid and investigate a series of ISO murders that he suspects might have been organized by Clu through the creation of a virus called Abraxas. The player controls Anon as he investigates with Quorra, eventually unraveling how Clu became corrupted between the events of the two films, and witnessing how The Grid has grown.
WhileTron: Evolutionisn’t exactly a murder mystery of any kind, its story does share some similarities withTron: Identity’s, given that the two center around conspiracies growing within The Grid.Tron: Evolutionis a fascinating piece of expanded media for the franchise that allowed players toexploreTron’s Gridfor the very first time. Characters such as Quorra and Zuse are shown to be much younger, well before the events ofTron: Legacy, and it once again shows The Grid adapting into being its own society without the rule of the Master Control Program from the first film.
Tron: Identitywill release on PC and consoles in 2023.
