"the word "reboot" shot to everyday prominence after 2005, being used to describe both Batman Begins and the 2009 Star Trek film. In 2010, Tron: Legacy entered into that cultural moment, technically, as a sequel to the 1982 film, Tron, but because 28 years had passed, Legacy was basically a reboot, too: a sequel that also is trying to bring back an entire franchise, without making it too hard on casual viewers."
"If you really want to make certain types of movie buffs mad, be sure to refer to director Joseph Kosinski as the mastermind behind Tron: Legacy, and not the guy who did Top Gun: Maverick or F1: The Movie. And yet, with Tron: Legacy, Kosinski basically does exactly what he did so successfully on Top Gun: Maverick, when it was finally released in 2022."
"Tron: Legacy fully embraces the, um, legacy of the original film, but, smartly, adds a missing story to fill in the gap: At some point between Tron and this film, brilliant programmer and game designer Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) disappeared, leaving his young son, Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), with a ton of daddy issues. This is basically the same trick that The Force Awakens used in 2015, with the phrase "Luke Skywalker is missing.""
Tron: Legacy (2010) functions as both a sequel to the 1982 Tron and a soft reboot that reintroduces the franchise for new audiences. The film uses a decades-long gap and a missing-father plot—Kevin Flynn's disappearance—to create emotional stakes for Sam Flynn and to anchor new storytelling. The movie helped popularize the soft reboot formula by remaking core elements, adding younger characters, and positioning itself as the new narrative starting point. Joseph Kosinski applies a structural approach that balances homage to the original with accessible entry points for casual viewers.
Read at Inverse
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