15 Facts About the ‘Tron’ Franchise Ahead of ‘Tron: Ares’

Despite receiving only mixed reviews and inviting modest box office business when it was released in 1982, Tron garnered a lot of attention for being unlike any other film that had ever been made. A mix of early computer effects, animation, and live-action, the movie—about a programmer (Jeff Bridges) sucked into a virtual terrain—developed a cult following. Ahead of the third film in the series, Tron: Ares, hitting theaters October 10, check out some facts and trivia notes about the project that helped usher in the digital age of cinema.

1. Tron was inspired by Pong.
2. Tron was originally going to be a cartoon.
3. Some Disney animators refused to work on Tron.
4. The effects for Tron used just two megabytes of memory.
5. The Tron discs were part of a no-guns policy.
6. Pac-Man has a cameo in Tron.
7. Tron’s release date was selected out of spite.
8. An early Tron screening actually caused Disney stock to drop.
9. Playboy wanted to do a Tron tie-in photo spread.
10. The Academy Awards snubbed Tron for alleged cheating.
11. Tron inspired Pixar.
12. Jeff Bridges didn’t like the way he looked in Tron: Legacy.
13. The Tron guy was banned from seeing the sequel.
14. Elijah Wood starred in a Tron sequel.
15. Star Wars and Marvel may have helped delay the third Tron film.

Tron was inspired by Pong.

In 1976, independent animator Steven Lisberger came across a demonstration reel compiled by MAGI, a computer firm that was at the forefront of experimenting with graphics software to create optical effects. Lisberger was intrigued by the idea—traditional cell animation is a time-intensive process—but it wasn’t until he saw the early Atari video game Pong that he was convinced a movie set inside a computer-generated world was viable.

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Tron was originally going to be a cartoon.

At the time Lisberger and his co-producer, Donald Kushner, started working on Tron (which is taken from the word “electronic”), the two had planned to use their considerable experience in animation to make it as a feature-length cartoon framed by just two live-action sequences. After being turned down by MGM, Columbia, and even Stan Lee, the partners pitched Disney, who invested in a test reel (which you can see above) for first-time director Lisberger that combined animation with live-action performers. When that was met with executive approval, Lisberger got the greenlight for the $17 million feature.

Some Disney animators refused to work on Tron.

Not everyone at Disney was enthusiastic about a computer-generated project. Disney’s traditional animators were said to have felt threatened by the potential for computers to force their craft into obsolescence and openly refused to assist Lisberger in any way. Instead, the director used Syd Mead and renowned French artist Jean “Moebius” Giraud to design the costumes and storyboard the film.

The effects for Tron used just two megabytes of memory.

The work it took to achieve the distinct visual style of Tron was a multi-layered process. CGI was used for backgrounds and the light cycle races; traditional animation techniques hand-painted the vibrant costumes. The actors (Bridges and David Warner) performed against a black screen so virtual sets could be dropped in during post-production. To realize the computer-generated images, Lisberger needed a computer that used just two megabytes of memory and 330 megabytes of hard drive storage space.

The Tron discs were part of a no-guns policy.

In the hardware grid of Tron, war is waged with flying discs. The latter was an intentional choice on the part of Lisberger, who wanted the film to distance itself from any violent imagery that kids might consider emulating at home. If they decided to recreate the fights they saw onscreen, he figured the worst they could do was bean themselves in the head with a Frisbee. 

Pac-Man has a cameo in Tron.

In a nod to Lisberger’s video game inspirations for the movie, viewers can catch a glimpse of Pac-Man in the scene where villain Sark (Warner) is lecturing his troops. You can even hear the game’s wacka-wacka cue on the soundtrack. Lisberger and his team inserted a few other early Easter eggs, including a digitally-rendered lake seen in a fleeting shot takes on the distinctive shape of Mickey Mouse’s head.

Tron’s release date was selected out of spite.

Tron was originally scheduled for the Christmas 1982 season, which would have made for some intriguing counter-programming against the serious dramas studios release in time for Oscar consideration. But the plan was scrapped when Disney found out that animator Don Bluth, who had defected from the company in 1979 and had publicly chastised it as being “stale,” was set to release his Secret of NIMH in July. Tron was moved up to a July 9 release in the hopes it would crush Bluth’s project. NIMH made $14 million; Tron delivered $33 million, but neither was considered a runaway hit.

An early Tron screening actually caused Disney stock to drop.

Thinking they were doing themselves a favor, Disney held a special screening of Tron for stock market analysts days ahead of its public premiere. But instead of garnering positive publicity, the studio was dismayed to find out that a mixed reaction actually led to their stock dropping $2.50 the following day. One called it a “seriously flawed, disjointed story” and told his customers to sell Disney stock. An irked Disney executive told The New York Times that it would likely be the last stock market screening: “What does a securities analyst know [about movies]?”

Playboy wanted to do a Tron tie-in photo spread.

While movie marketing has become a near-exact science, Disney publicists weren’t quite sure at the time who the target audience for Tron would be. Computer users? Video game players? Teens? While they were strategizing, Playboy made an offer: they’d photograph models with circuit boards strategically positioned to preserve their modesty. Disney declined.

The Academy Awards snubbed Tron for alleged cheating.

When it came time to announce the nominees for Best Visual Effects for the 1983 Academy Awards ceremony, Tron seemed like a sure thing. Instead, it got snubbed. Why? According to Lisberger, it was because the industry considered computer effects a shortcut. “The Academy thought we cheated by using computers,” he told the San Francisco Gate in 2002. Instead, the Academy nominated Blade Runner, Poltergeist, and E.T.; E.T. won.

Tron inspired Pixar.

Pixar animation specialist John Lasseter (Toy Story) was a young storyboard artist at Disney when Tron was in development. After catching a glimpse of the production, he convinced the studio to let him film a 30-second test reel featuring CGI backgrounds. The company liked it, but at the time, they were more interested in saving money than nourishing a new wave of technology.

But Lasseter wasn't discouraged. “It absolutely blew me away,” he told Animation World in 2012. “A little door in my mind opened up. I looked at it and said, ‘This it! This is the future.’ ”

Pixar would, in a sense, return the favor in 2010, when producers of Tron: Legacy enlisted Lasseter and other Pixar creatives to screen a rough cut of the film and offer feedback.

Jeff Bridges didn’t like the way he looked in Tron: Legacy.

Bridges returned to the role of Kevin Flynn for the long-gestating sequel, 2010’s Tron: Legacy, which sees his son, Sam, visit the Grid. To represent his younger self, Bridges underwent the then-novel technique of digital de-aging. He wasn’t entirely happy with the results. “I didn’t like the way I looked in it,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I felt like I looked more like Bill Maher than myself. It was kind of bizarre.”

The Tron guy was banned from seeing the sequel.

Tron megafan Jay Maynard became an internet meme after photos of his decidedly low-tech, tight-fitting replica costume made headlines back in 2004. When Disney released Tron: Legacy in 2010, people were clamoring for his opinion. The problem? He was booted out of the theater. According to Time, Maynard went to a screening in Minnesota but was ushered out, possibly because management decided his illuminated wardrobe would be too distracting for other guests. When he finally got a chance to see it, he said the sequel was so good it nearly made him cry.

Elijah Wood starred in a Tron sequel.

After the mixed response to the belated Tron: Legacy sequel in 2010, Disney decided to continue the franchise in a more financially modest way with Tron: Uprising, an animated series for their Disney XD channel. Elijah Wood voiced Beck, a mechanic thrust into the world of digital stakes. Debuting to poor ratings in 2012, the series lasted only one season.

Star Wars and Marvel may have helped delay the third Tron film.

Tron movies take a very long time to gestate. Twenty-eight years elapsed between the 1982 original and its 2010 sequel, while there’s been a 15-year gap between Tron: Legacy and Tron: Ares. According to Joseph Kosinski, who directed Legacy and was once eyeing the third film, part of the blame rests on Wookiees and Iron Man.

“I mean, you have to remember that when we made Tron: Legacy, Disney did not own Marvel,” Kosinski said in 2017. “Disney did not own Lucasfilm … they own everything now. But this was before they owned everything, so from the studio point of view, they have a certain number of slots and a certain amount of money to make movies and if you can make a Star Wars spinoff or another Marvel movie, which are all doing incredibly well, a Tron movie, even though I think it would do very well, the question is: Would it do as well as one of those?”

Disney will soon find out: Tron: Ares, starring Jared Leto, occupies a fourth-quarter Disney slate with no Star Wars or Marvel films.

A version of this story ran in 2016; it has been updated for 2025.