Negative Backlash at New Tron Movie Grows: Could This Be the End of Jared Leto’s Franchise Stardom?

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, “Ares” took in an underwhelming $60.2 million on its opening weekend, despite how Disney heavily promoted the film. As of the writing of this article, the movie has a 53% critic score and 86% user score on Rotten Tomatoes. Even though Jared Leto gave his all to the performance, even refusing to break character off camera, his star power didn’t bring in audiences.

This has people wondering if Leto’s name is no longer enough to get people to buy tickets. Previously, Leto’s star power failed to put people in seats for Sony’s “Morbius,” even though that film has since earned meme status on the internet. Questions are now being asked about the fate of the upcoming “Masters of the Universe,” in which Leto will be playing He-Man’s boney nemesis Skeletor.

Is This the End of the “Tron” Franchise?

Originally, the third “Tron” movie was going to follow the storyline of “Tron: Legacy,” which also performed less than Disney hope, but that version was scrapped. In fact, if it weren’t for Leto, we might not have gotten a third movie at all. In an interview with Polygon, screenwriter Jesse Wigutow discussed how Leto had been cast as a character named Ares in pre-production, but held on to the character after the movie was cancelled. Wigutow stated:

“He really got his teeth into this character and really wanted to hold onto it, and ultimately came to me and said, ‘Let’s just build a movie around this character. I want to understand this character, his origins, and I want to take him to a very different place.’ So that’s really the provenance and the origin of this specific film is Jared’s dogged persistence on getting it done, but also telling the story of this character specifically.”

Unfortunately, it seems that audiences didn’t connect with Ares in the same way that Leto did. Could this mean that we’ll never get another “Tron” movie? The franchise will always have a cult status, and as time passes, “Ares” will likely gain its own cult following, but the franchise has always had difficulty when it comes to appealing to mainstream audiences. In this age when people are carrying AI assistants around in their phones, they might prefer not to think about the possibility of that AI developing a consciousness.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed “Tron: Ares,” as I discussed in my review of the movie. Unfortunately, the franchise’s days on the big screen might have passed. Despite its dedicated cult following, the special effects required to make a “Tron” movie cost money, which Disney might be unwilling to spend if the movies don’t pull their own weight at the box-office.  So, if “Ares” really is the end of the franchise, you might want to see it on the big screen while you still can. It truly is a memorable experience.