If you weren’t already worried about AI invading our lives, you might be after watching this trailer.
Following its presentation this past week at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Disney has released a new look at the third film in its long-running sci-fi adventure franchise, “Tron: Ares.” Directed by Joachim Rønning (“The Young Woman and the Sea”) and written by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne (“Adolescence”), the film stars Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Greta Lee, Gillian Anderson, and the original star of the series, Jeff Bridges. Watch the trailer below.
As per Disney’s official synopsis, “‘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 AI beings.”
Leto and Bridges were on hand to showcase footage at CinemaCon, with the former saying of the first film, “It was the ’80s. It felt like the future; action, adventure, spandex — lots of spandex.” Much like video games themselves, the look of the “Tron” franchise has become far less kitschy and in this latest installment takes on an even darker tone. Amplifying this is the abrasive, mechanical-sounding score from industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Though the band’s members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have scored many films before, including last year’s club-inspired “Challengers,” they announced at D23 in August 2024 that they would be embracing their old co-identity for this project, the first time they’ve done so on any feature.
“Tron: Ares” had some struggles in its initial days as production was forced to shut down due to the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Rønning was not particularly pleased with this as it meant letting go of an entire staff of workers who weren’t on strike at the time. The irony here is that the film’s main subject, AI, was one of the key elements that writers and actors were pushing against.
“Today was supposed to be our first day of principal photography on ‘TRON: ARES’ (a movie subsequently about AI and what it means, and takes, to be human),” Rønning wrote in a post on Instagram back in August 2023. “Instead, we are shut down with over a hundred and fifty people laid off. It’s indefinite, which makes it exponentially harder for everyone.”
The original 1982 film starred Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a software engineer running a video game arcade who gets transported into the digital world after breaking into the mainframe computer of the tech company he used to work for. Once inside, Flynn is forced to face programs he helped develop in order to make his escape. The original film was a landmark for digital effects and computer-generated imagery. His story was continued in 2010’s “Tron: Legacy” from “Top Gun: Maverick” and “F1” director Joseph Kosinski. It starred Garrett Hedlund as Flynn’s adult son, who receives a message from his long-lost father that sends him on his own journey through virtual reality. That film made $409 million at the global box office and is fondly remembered for its score from electronic duo Daft Punk.
Watch the trailer for “Tron: Ares” below.
“Tron: Ares” releases in theaters from Walt Disney Studios on October 10.
