Tron: Uprising

Looks fantastic. Will provide an interesting insight into the events in The Grid between Tron & Tron: Legacy. The visual style certainly grabs your attention, 2D-styled 3D and all that. Cool cast too!

Thirty*3

The big question at the moment is what is Tron's future? Both in regards to the franchise and the character. There stands the assumption that despite sinking into the depths of the Sea of Simulation that Tron did in fact survive his betrayal, death, rebirth, betrayal and rebirth at the hands of Clu and finally Flynn - if the super saviour could not swim that would surely be a let down to the legend.

The end of Tron Legacy does hint towards a potential future looming with Sam and Quorra at the forefront. This however does not answer the question of how Tron will factor into the equation, surely Alan Bradley would be an integral part of any future endeavors through his role as CEO of Encom but Tron? Who the hell knows. The recent short film reveals that Bradley has been financing the Flynn Lives campaign on the side for years, which has been headed by Ram. I liked this, the potential that a third film is promising - with hints at Dillinger Snr. and Jnr. factoring in all plays together nicely. The only hitches that I see in a potential sequel is that the grid has once again been shut down. This would require the creation of a new system, which is not implausible when it comes to the Dillinger's but for Tron to appear would prove interesting. Flynn ported Tron from the original system, the same system in which Ram existed. Ram could be a new creation, or an updated rehash of the old code. Tron could be pulled from Flynn's system through the backup that Sam now carries with him. But in my mind there is no Tron without Jeff Bridges - it isn't unimaginable that they could pull Flynn from an old backup of the system or something, or he may exist as a ghost within the machine. Some techno-sci-fi-babble. It's been done before.

Regardless, if there is to be a Tron the Third there needs to be some serious focus on Alan/Tron. He was very much the glue to which the wallpaper was stuck on in the last film and I would love to see him take a more aggressive presence in future installments if we are in fact to endure them.

Thirty*1

Twenty*27

Tron:: Uprising is the upcoming animated series set between the two films, expanding on the existing stories provided to us by the two films as well as Tron: Betrayal (graphic novel) and Tron: Evolution (game). There is little to say at this point, the trailer looks pretty swish. Curious to see how the characters are animated, the faces appearing to be 2D within the helmet. Personally I was hoping for something that bit closer to Star Wars Clone Wars animated series. The voice cast is impressive with Elijah Wood and Mandy Moore lending their talents. Most importantly Bruce Boxleitner is back to voice Tron. If only they could get Awesome Snr back on Chuck!

The series will debut later this year as a "10-part micro-series" continuing with a regular series in 2012. As far as the term 'micro-series' goes I cannot say if this is the latest Disney-coined term, or something that I am simply unaware of. As far as I can tell a 10 episode series could classify as a mini-series or a full season (re: V Season 2).