TRON: Ares – The Grid crashes into reality, and it’s got Jared Leto’s cheekbones (trailer).
Dust off your lightcycles and start mentally prepping for a Nine Inch Nails-fuelled existential crisis, because TRON: Ares is real. Yes, after fifteen years of false starts, director swaps, and Disney giving the franchise the cold shoulder like an awkward ex at Comic-Con, the third entry in the TRON saga is actually happening. We’ve seen the trailer, and it looks like someone gave The Matrix a glow-up, added Greta Lee, and told Jared Leto to channel “ethereal cyber messiah with parental issues.” Mission very much accomplished.
Set to drop into cinemas (and presumably our collective subconscious) on October 10, 2025, TRON: Ares is a standalone sequel to TRON: Legacy, itself a visually sumptuous if narratively baffling sequel to the 1982 original TRON, aka “the film your dad remembers mostly for the motorbikes and Jeff Bridges’ beard.” This time around, it’s not just about escaping the Grid – the Grid is coming here, and it’s bringing its digital friends with it.
The story, according to Disney’s delightfully vague synopsis, sees Ares – a highly advanced programme played by Leto – sent from the digital world into our own, marking the first proper encounter between humanity and A.I. beings. Ares isn’t here to play Fortnite. He’s on a “dangerous mission”, which we strongly suspect involves melting the boundaries between code and flesh in ways that will no doubt give Jeff Bridges ample opportunity to utter cryptic metaphysical wisdom while glowing faintly.
Greta Lee plays Eve Kim, whose name already sounds suspiciously like it belongs to a resistance leader in a cyberpunk novel, and Evan Peters is cast as Julian Dillinger – almost certainly a descendant of the original ENCOM villain, Edward Dillinger, which means he’s either a) a charming tech bro with a dark agenda or b) a charming tech bro with a really dark agenda. Either way, we’re intrigued.
And speaking of intriguing – Gillian Anderson is also along for the ride, in an as-yet-undisclosed role. Given the TRON franchise’s love of the mystical-meets-machinery vibe, we’re hoping for some sort of rogue programme-goddess who speaks exclusively in riddles and controls the fate of reality through an arcade machine.
Meanwhile, Jeff Bridges is back as Kevin Flynn, because of course he is. Presumably, he’s been floating in a cloud of data and dad energy since 2010, sipping virtual White Russians while pondering the digital soul. Will he pass the metaphorical baton to Leto? Or perhaps just sigh, mutter “not again,” and start building another Portal.
What sets Ares apart from its neon-drenched predecessors is its central conceit: bringing a programme into the real world. It’s a bold move that effectively reverses the original premise, giving us the kind of sci-fi reversal that suggests someone at Disney finally asked, “What if TRON, but with actual stakes?” Cue killer A.I., philosophical debates, and probably at least one scene where someone yells “It’s learning!”
With Nine Inch Nails scoring the film—yes, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross finally composing under the NIN name instead of their usual Oscar-winning selves—we’re promised a “grittier” soundscape. So forget the glossy electronic elegance of Daft Punk in Legacy; Ares is coming in hard, loud, and with the mood of a haunted synthwave nightclub that’s just achieved sentience.
Director Joachim Rønning (of Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar’s Dubious Wig fame) is at the helm, with a script from Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne, who we presume are being held together by a mixture of Red Bull and sheer narrative ambition. After years of development hell, false dawns, and the slow drip-feed of internet rumours, the fact that this film exists, has wrapped filming, and has a trailer, feels miraculous.
What can we expect from TRON: Ares? Neon noir meets A.I. apocalypse, perhaps. Expect themes of identity, artificial evolution, and someone whispering “the code is changing” while moodily lit in blue. Expect Jared Leto being both unnervingly calm and slightly too into it. Expect digital weaponry, stylish coats, and someone shouting “End of line” with gravitas.
Here at SFcrowsnest, we’ve been holding our breath for this film longer than most humans can legally inhale. With the trailer now glowing before us like the face of MCP 2.0, we’re daring to believe that TRON: Ares might just be the cyberpunk messiah we’ve been waiting for.
