If you’re visiting the Tomorrowland section of either Orlando’s Magic Kingdom or Shanghai Disneyland, you could be one of the lucky park goers to head into The Grid from the Tron franchise. The new Walt Disney World attraction Tron Lightcycle / Run is a colorful race into the machine world, awaiting those ready to potentially dig deeper into the ride’s Tron Legacy inspired lore. However, if history had played out a little differently, the world of Tron would have made it to Disney World way earlier.
Tron’s First Actual Theme Park Attraction
Technically, Shanghai Disneyland’s Tron Lightcycle Power Run isn’t the first actual attraction that put visitors into the world of co-writer/director Steven Lisberger’s sci-fi movie legend. Capitalizing on Tron’s theatrical release almost immediately, 1982 saw Disneyland’s now-defunct Peoplemover touched up with a bit of Kevin Flynn magic. For the next 13 years, until its closure in 1995, Peoplemover Through The World Of Tron would give fans their first chance to experience the digital frontier firsthand.
Unfortunately, it was an attraction that was pretty limited in scope. Think of a version of Fast & Furious: Supercharged, except on a single rail without all the motion effects. Disneyland visitors would be told they were entering The Grid, and would then travel through projections of Tron battle footage on the walls of the area known as the Superspeed Tunnel.
The Tron wiki on Fandom has some further resources discussing the background of this experience, and even has a link to camcorder video from the ride itself. With that early attraction, it was clear that even in the march towards this cult classic's 1982 release, Disney had some sort of intent on folding its next potential live-action hit into the parks. Which is perfect, because in that very same year, the 21st century was about to begin in Orlando, and ENCOM’s finest were being kept in mind to help celebrate.
How Tron Almost Made It Into Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center
The initial plans to have a Tron attraction in Epcot Center occupy a weird middle ground that Disney Parks fans should be used to. Much like the new Mary Poppins attraction that may or may not have been cancelled for the UK pavilion, what became known as Tron Arcade only exists in press release-style language and concept art. However, what is known about the concept is enough to wish that it actually happened.
Two fun notes that need to be made before we move on: if you ever want to stand where the Tron Arcade was supposed to exist, just head on over to Coca Cola’s Club Cool. As pointed out by Theme Park Tourist, the history of that part of Communicore West eventually led to the internet discovering its favorite soda of all: Beverly! Also, if you still want a Tron-style experience on the Epcot grounds, the newer variant of Test Track is exactly where people would send you. While you’re at it, you should totally ride Mission: Space, which isn’t as intense as you might think.
What Was Planned For The Tron Arcade Experience
Based on the limited knowledge known about Tron Arcade, it appears that the proposal was to be an immersive experience. Long before the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser would plunge guests into an all-encompassing adventure in a galaxy far, far away, Epcot visitors would travel into the computer world that inspired Kevin Flynn, exploring what looked like an arcade/bar environment that was shown off in a piece of concept art you can check out over at Insight and Sounds.
The coming attractions sign for Tron Arcade prompted visitors to expect as much as well. In a photo that captured this promise of the world of Tron entering the Epcot Center campus, the following logline teased what was to come:
What's in a Game? Lasers...Simulators...Robotics Enter an Extraordinary New World of Electronic Micro-Magic.
While it doesn’t feel like Tron Arcade wasn’t going to be an opening day attraction, there was at least a piece of concept art and an intriguing plan in play for what could have been, which is something Disney Parks loyalists know doesn’t always mean a surefire attraction. Considering the fate of Tron at the box office in 1982, one can begin to theorize why we never saw this attraction materialize. While the film is now seen as one of the best sci-fi movies ever, it wasn't a massive hit at the time.
Why Didn’t Tron Arcade Happen At Epcot Center?
There isn’t exactly an official reason as to why Tron Arcade was scrapped, but the writing is practically on the wall. Disney’s experimental live-action movie may have kicked off a cult classic franchise, but in the summer of 1982, it was pounded by none other than future theme park rival Universal. As E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial became a box office smash, Tron’s arcade game was the franchise’s true success thanks to the movie being left in the dust.
As Epcot Center didn’t seem in too much of a rush to fill the space earmarked for Tron Arcade, and its cinematic counterpart deemed a failure, it’s a safe bet that these plans were nothing more than an ambitious placeholder. With Tron underperforming, other exhibits and attractions would jump into that space, with the silver lining being that Coca Cola would use that one promised section of the future to educate the world about soft drinks around the world.
How Shanghai Disneyland Gave Tron Arcade A Second Chance
Honestly, what you read above was where I thought the story ended. Tron Arcade was derezzed so that various Tron: Legacy pop-ups at Disneyland could boot up, eventually leading us to Shanghai’s opening of Tron Lightcycle Power Run in 2016. I thought the happy ending of this story was the fact that two Lightcycle attractions now exist, one of which happens to be the Magic Kingdom’s most intense ride experience.
I’m glad to say I was totally wrong, because it turns out that decades later, the Tron Arcade concept came true! Believe it or not, there’s a section of Shanghai Disneyland’s Tron Lightcycle Power Run that looks to be based off of that Epcot Center concept that faded away so long ago. Known as the Tron Realm Chevrolet Digital Challenge, that interactive world of micro-magic is alive and well; which you can see in the video below:
For those of you who looked at the concept art from the original attraction, does that game at 07:23 in the video look familiar? That digital experience looks like it’s plucked out of the original vision for Epcot Center’s big Tron presence. It may have taken over 30 years, but the Tron Arcade eventually got to live on in the Tron Realm Chevrolet Digital Challenge. So now that it’s been proven as possible, could the Magic Kingdom’s Tron Lightcycle / Run get its own arcade experience, thus truly closing the loop?
Well, that’s to be debated. The only real post-ride experiences are a quick alcove advertising Enterprise Rent-a-Car’s Team Green, as well as the gift shop that allows guests to partake in the Tron Identity Program, along with the procurement of Tron merch. While that’s all well and good, after knowing the story of Tron Arcade and seeing how it technically came to life in Shanghai Disneyland, I’m really eager to see if Disney Parks can replicate that experience a little closer to home.
Tron Lightcycle / Run, and its overseas counterpart, Tron Lightcycle Power Run, are both online and running trips into The Grid. Walt Disney World and Shanghai Disneyland are the place to be if you want to get in on the fun, so book your trip accordingly, and don’t forget that the Orlando experience still requires either a Virtual Queue or Lightning Lane reservation to grant you access. End Of Line.
