Ares’ Existential Quest Powers TRON’s Latest Chapter

San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) is just around the corner, and as part of the hype for its main event, Disney has dropped a brand-new trailer for TRON: Ares, the next installment in the long-running franchise. Directed by Joachim Rønning, the film signals a new entry in the TRON canon, and one that’s notably shifting the series from its digital universe into the real one.

Fans last saw the Grid in 2010’s TRON: Legacy, which saw the son of original TRON hero Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), race to stop Clu (a malevolent program in the Grid with Flynn’s likeness), from taking over the digital world and merging it with reality. In the film’s third act, Sam also evaded capture and made his escape with Quorra (Olivia Wilde), an isomorphic algorithm (ISO) — or in layman’s terms, a computer program that can be modified — who was also on the run from Clu in the real world, as he wanted her deleted.

Disney originally intended to pick up directly from that point, as Legacy had concluded the film. The studio had officially greenlit a third TRON entry in October 2010, with the new film poised to jump into Sam and Quorra’s lives as Sam had taken the reins of his father’s company, ENCOM. A sequel was in active development for some years, but the studio ultimately canned it in 2015, with reports suggesting the decision was affected by the poor performance at the box office for another of the studio’s sci-fi films at the time, Tomorrowland.

It wasn’t off, though. In 2020, the project was resurrected, no longer as a continuation of Legacy but as a reboot of the franchise, TRON: Ares, that still made use of plot elements in the works for several years, including one of the characters developed in previous scripts: Ares, a program, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital presence that has been written into multiple iterations of a third TRON film over the years. After several delays related to COVID and the broader entertainment industry’s shutdowns during Hollywood’s recent labor strikes, the film is now finished and is scheduled to come out in theaters later this year.

Per Disney’s official synopsis for the film, “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.” The role of Ares is being played by Jared Leto, while Evan Peters and Greta Lee play Julian Dillinger and Eve Kim, respectively. Other cast members include Jodie Turner-Smith, Cameron Monaghan, Sarah Desjardins, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, and Gillian Anderson. For returning fans, the film also features Jeff Bridges reprising his role as Kevin Flynn. The musical score for the film is by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.

What the Trailer Reveals: An “Ultimate Soldier” Enters the Real World

Disney released the first TRON: Ares trailer in April, which showed off the film’s main aesthetics — glowing neon lines, lightcycles, and eye-popping digital vistas — but did little to offer a sense of the story and what Ares’ mission is in the real world. This new trailer follows up on that first one, providing more details on the film’s conflict, while also leaning into the aesthetics that fans expect.

It opens with Julian Dillinger, who is being introduced as a speaker at an apparent tech industry conference, before he pivots to a loaded statement: “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.”

Dillinger then goes on to reveal to his captive audience the “ultimate soldier.” “He’s biblically strong, lightning fast, and supremely intelligent. And if he is struck down on the battlefield…” and, at this point, Dillinger theatrically smacks Ares down in front of the audience…I will simply make you another.” It becomes very clear from this scene that Dillinger is a powerful corporate force, a tech titan with presumptions on the future of AI technology and its uses.

But the trailer also seems to show the potential for that to be far more complicated than he believes it is. Ares may believe he has been created by Dillinger, but the AI is ultimately on its journey. “Searching. For something I can’t even name yet,” Ares says in a scene alone. The trailer also alludes to a philosophical question that will come to a head as the film goes on, specifically when Kevin Flynn materializes in the digital world and asks the question, “A malfunctioning program who wants to live, why is that?”

Old fans will have Bridges’ return as Flynn as a hook, while new eyes are certain to be drawn in by Leto’s take on an AI character straddling the line between his world and the one that belongs to humanity. The film appears to be a larger-scale action entry in the series, but the trailer also appears to gesture to a few more concepts about the autonomy of AI and the larger ethical questions that go with creation.

Visually, that polish is on display, with Rønning’s work on TRON: Ares bringing together both futuristic digital techscapes as well as the grounded, real-world landscapes. The trailer also offers some glimpses at the musical work of Nine Inch Nails, with their industrial sound certain to undergird the big action and the quieter scenes with atmosphere.

After years of fits and starts and many stumbles along the way, TRON: Ares is on the way. The film will hit theaters on October 10, 2025.