Hm! Good question.

Well… as I’ve said many times before… my feelings about what Official Canon will ever do with this franchise are neutral at best. My focus is on fanworks, right now and for the foreseeable future, because fanworks are the only ones ever exploring the storylines I want to see more of.

And fanworks aren’t usually equipped to cast anybody as anything. Because making a movie or a show takes amounts of… money, and resources, and power over other human beings, that are usually outside the reach of anyone who has any sort of ethics, let alone a fan who isn’t even expecting payment.

But.

That said.

Having read the early draft script, where we got to see much more of Bonnie MacBird’s vision for what the movie could be…

(I think of Bonnie MacBird as the author more than Steven Lisberger, because Wikipedia says she “wrote it with significant input from Lisberger,” or something to that effect… and this draft was before Disney or Lisberger or anyone got involved in all the logistics of turning it into an actual movie)…

…I actually feel that the only new Tron movie I personally could ever get really excited about, would be a remake that was more true to that early script.

I will always adore the 1982 movie for what it was. And that movie, unchanged in any way, should live forever in its own right, in our hearts and our archives of film history. But as I’ve said before, I do still have a longing to see other versions of what could have been.

See, it feels to me like this –the early draft– was the story it meant to tell. It feels like the complete version of the movie– with scenes that make it all make more sense, that had to be cut just to reduce it to Disney movie length and comply with Disney censors.

This is the movie it could be, if we could actually get Disney’s hands off of it someday.

It is very much not perfect, and there are plenty of things I would change. But it feels like a storyline I’d rather see– and a better starting-place for any sequels that would actually interest me.

And, as for casting, it would pretty much have to be recast entirely, with younger actors. And probably actors with a bit of a different feel overall. (MacBird’s original pick for Flynn was Robin Williams, and it is oh-so-sad that we’ll never see what THAT would be like.)

And I am actually pretty interested in what this would mean for recasting of the Lora/Yori role!

You’ll note that in that script, Lora and Yori were to be played by an Asian actress– making the Japanese names actually make sense! That could be a really fresh take on the character.

As much as I loved Cindy Morgan, I do not love how Disney’s influence ended up making everyone white in the final version. And I do think it’d be more likely, in the present day, to recast it with more actors of color and avoid the stereotypical sorts of portrayals that often went along with such attempts at diversity in the 1980’s.

(For instance, I do think the scenes in that early script that portrayed Lora and Yori attempting martial arts …might need some changing. MacBird was a visionary, but still a product of her time.)

Anyway. This is all a pipe dream… once Disney gets its hooks into a franchise it’s never going to see real diversity or even real creativity, compared to what fans can imagine.

And yes, I know my take isn’t everybody’s. But you did ask me.