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Disney has revealed the first footage from “Tron: Ares,” the third film in its sci-fi franchise set in a virtual reality world inside a mainframe. Cast members Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Greta Lee and Jeff Bridges unveiled the first look Friday night during Disney’s marathon preview of its upcoming slate at the D23 Expo.
At the end of the footage, a title card revealed that the soundtrack was composed by Nine Inch Nails, the industrial and electronic rock band founded by Trent Reznor and joined in 2016 by frequent collaborator Atticus Ross. Reznor and Ross, who won Oscars for their scores to 2010's “The Social Network” and 2020's “Soul,” briefly appeared on stage together after the announcement.
Leto plays Ares, a program from the Digital Universe tasked with entering the real world. Lee plays Eve Kim, a human character described by Lee as “a brilliant programmer whose greatest work provided a way for Ares to enter our world.” Peters plays Julian Dillinger, who shares the same surname as the villain in the first “Tron” film, which premiered in 1982.
“Dillinger doesn’t always mean great things to those on the grid,” Peters said.
The film opens with Dillinger talking about the future of humanity during a keynote presentation. “Since the beginning of time, man has looked up at the stars and wondered, ‘Am I alone?’” he says. “It turns out we’ve been looking in the wrong direction, because intelligent life does exist — but it’s not there, it’s here. There’s a lot of talk about AI and big tech and virtual worlds, when are we going to get there? Well folks, we’re not going. They’re coming here.”
The footage cuts to Ares in the real world, touching the rain. He says, “There's something going on in my soul, I don't understand it. I came here to find something.”
The rest of the footage included shots of a car being cut in half by a light cycle, and a barefoot Bridges in a white robe saying, “Cheers, the show.”
Joachim Rønning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) is directing the film from a script by Jesse Wigotow and Jack Thorne. The film also stars Jodie Turner-Smith, Gillian Anderson, Hassan Minaj, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan, and Sarah Desjardins.
“Technology and artificial intelligence are particularly present in all of our lives,” Bridges said before the footage was shown. “What a perfect time to revisit this amazing world. Or rather, to have this amazing world revisit us.”
“Tron: Ares” is the continuation of one of the longest (and strangest) film trilogies in modern cinema history. Despite being a box office disappointment, writer-director Steven Lisberger’s “Tron” has been hailed as the first feature film to make extensive use of computer-generated imagery. The film follows a video game developer, Kevin Flynn (Bridges), who is unwittingly dragged into a harsh digital world. Bridges reprised the role when Disney revived the franchise with “Tron: Legacy” in 2010, the directorial debut of “Top Gun: Maverick” filmmaker Joseph Kosinski.
“It’s really amazing to think that we made the original in 1982,” Bridges said during the presentation. “It’s amazing — we never thought we would have this legacy that has lasted all these years.”
Bridges revealed on a podcast episode in April that he would be returning for “Tron: Ares,” but his “Legacy” co-stars Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde — who play Flynn’s adult son and a sentient program that joins the real world, respectively — will not appear in the new film.
Leto first signed on to star in “Tron: Ares” in 2017 as a producer. Justin Springer, Jeffrey Silver and Emma Ludbrook are also producing.
