- calendar_today August 29, 2025
TRON Returns This Fall With Jared Leto as Ares
Disney has finally released a new trailer for its upcoming film TRON: Ares, just two days before San Diego Comic-Con. It has also been confirmed that TRON: Ares will have a theatrical release, so it seems we will get to see more TRON action in theatres next year.
Directed by Joachim Ronning, TRON: Ares is a new start for the TRON franchise in the sense that it is going to be set in the real world and not in the virtual world of the Grid. As mentioned in the trailer, the character Ares is set to enter the real world and have a face-off with the evil human program creator Julian Dillinger.
The last time we were in the Grid was in the 2010 sequel TRON: Legacy. The film followed the adventures of Sam Flynn, son of Kevin Flynn, the main character from the original 1982 TRON. In the closing scenes, Flynn manages to stop Clu, the evil program, from merging the Grid with the real world. Flynn also escapes with Quorra, an ISO (short for isomorphic algorithm), a rare form of life in the Grid, who has been marked by Clu for deletion.
Disney initially wanted the third TRON movie to be a direct sequel to Legacy. In October 2010, the sequel was officially in development, with the film set to follow Flynn and Quorra on their journey after Flynn takes over his father’s company, ENCOM. The sequel was, however, reported to be in trouble since there was no update about the TRON 3 production. It was said that the “major contributor” to the sequel not happening was the box office failure of Disney’s other sci-fi film, Tomorrowland.
In 2020, it was confirmed that TRON was rebooting; only it was going to be a standalone reboot, and not a direct sequel to Legacy. This did not, however, mean that the elements of the original TRON 3 story would not find their way to the script of the new reboot. It is a known fact that the name of the character Ares was included in the list of characters from previous scripts. After being delayed several times by the pandemic and the two Hollywood strikes, the film is finally over the finish line. TRON: Ares is now expected to be released in theaters in the fall of 2025.
TRON: Ares Summary
TRON: Ares summary, according to Disney, states: “TRON: Ares follows a highly sophisticated Program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings.”
Jared Leto stars in the movie as Ares, Evan Peters plays Julian Dillinger, and Greta Lee plays Eve Kim. The other cast members include Jodie Turner-Smith, Cameron Monaghan, Sarah Desjardins, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, and Gillian Anderson. Jeff Bridges is also returning to the role of Kevin Flynn; the score for the film is also being done by Nine Inch Nails.
A look into the new trailer
TRON’s first trailer was dropped in April, and as usual, it was a feast of neon graphics in lines, lightcycles, and colorful digital landscapes that are the visual signatures of TRON. The trailer dropped at that time, however, it did not reveal much about the story. With the second trailer, which was released this week, we have a little bit of an idea of what the film is all about.
In the new trailer, we are presented with the evil CEO, Julian Dillinger, giving a presentation on the direction his company is going to take concerning artificial intelligence (AI). In the presentation, Dillinger says, “So much talk of AI and big tech today. Virtual worlds, what are they going to look like? When will we get there? Well, folks. We’re not going there. They are coming here.”
Julian then reveals to the audience his “ultimate soldier”. Dillinger presents Ares, the AI, saying, “He’s biblically strong, lightning fast, and supremely intelligent. And if he is struck down on the battlefield…” At this point, Dillinger strikes Ares down in front of the audience, and to his surprise, Ares does not move. Dillinger continues, “…I will simply make you another.” This scene alone sets Dillinger’s character as the kind of arrogant CEO who thinks he can control artificial intelligence.
The trailer, however, gives us a different hint. Julian Dillinger might think he can create Ares and have absolute power and control over him, but it does not seem to be that way. Ares, in this movie, is on a quest to find something he doesn’t know he is looking for. It seems Ares is on a journey of self-exploration; this might give the film an interesting philosophical twist it, judging by Kevin Flynn’s line in the virtual world in the trailer, “A malfunctioning program who wants to live, why is that?”
Fans of the original TRON will find their nostalgia hit when they see Jeff Bridges reprise his role as Kevin Flynn; Jared Leto, as the AI character Ares, is crossing over to the human world, has a new role to play on top of the age-old man-machine debates that have been a recurring theme in the TRON franchise. The visual graphics are also just as solid as one can expect them to be from a TRON film. The direction of the film is being done by Ronning, who has experience working on both sci-fi and grounded, realistic worlds. It looks like the film’s atmospheric score, being put together by Nine Inch Nails, is also going to do a great job at that too.
TRON: Ares is just over a year away from its theatre release. Be sure to set your calendar for October 10, 2025, and wait for a new clash between the virtual and physical worlds in TRON: Ares.
