Kevin Flynn and Ares Meet in TRON’s Bold New Installment

Disney has just dropped a new trailer for its upcoming film TRON: Ares ahead of this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, building hype for its upcoming major presentation at the event in less than a week. Directed by Joachim Rønning, TRON: Ares continues the long-running sci-fi franchise into new territory and with a new storytelling scope as the sequel takes audiences out of the digital world and into the real one.

The last time audiences were introduced to the franchise’s virtual reality world known as the Grid, the company was following up on its 2010 TRON: Legacy. In that installment, they followed Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the son of TRON’s main character, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges). Near the film’s end, Sam shut down a plan by the Grid’s power-hungry program Clu to expand the Grid and destroy the real world. He also rescued Quorra (Olivia Wilde), a special ISO (short for isomorphic algorithm) who had been on the run and targeted for deletion by Clu.

Disney was planning to continue from where Legacy left off for the film, which was greenlit back in October 2010. It was supposed to follow Sam and Quorra’s journey after Sam had inherited his father’s ENCOM company and was at the helm of it. But over the next several years, the project stagnated. Production reports in 2015 said that the film was canceled, with some reports saying the studio was disinterested partly due to the disappointing box office performance of a similarly sci-fi themed film, Tomorrowland, the same year.

The franchise was resuscitated several years later, however. In 2020, Disney announced a new film, TRON: Ares, a standalone reboot of the franchise rather than a direct sequel. The screenplay still had holdovers from previous incarnations of the idea, such as the character Ares. This digital intelligence program was created by the film’s villain. The film’s title itself comes from this specific character, despite Ares also being the name of an Ancient Greek god of war.

TRON: Ares had its share of issues. After years of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Hollywood’s film and TV industry shutdowns due to recent labor strikes, the film was finally completed in production. Disney’s official synopsis for the film has the plot following “A highly sophisticated Program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, introducing humankind to their very first encounter with AI beings.” Starring in the film are Jared Leto as Ares, Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger, and Greta Lee as Eve Kim. In addition, there are Jodie Turner-Smith, Cameron Monaghan, Sarah Desjardins, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, and Gillian Anderson. Jeff Bridges is back in the franchise, reprising his role as Kevin Flynn. The original composer for TRON, Nine Inch Nails, has returned to score the film.

Trailer Synopsis: Evil Tech CEO Previews His “Ultimate Soldier”

In the original TRON: Ares trailer back in April, audiences got some taste of what to expect from the film with signature TRON elements such as flashing neon lines, lightcycles, and vibrant pixelated environments, and all the action that goes along with it. But even with all that, the film’s first trailer had been quite light on details. This new trailer, however, sheds more light on what the sequel has in store, including what the film’s central stakes are.

TRON: Ares‘ new trailer starts with a tech-industry style keynote where Julian Dillinger makes a shocking claim: “So much talk of AI and big tech today. Virtual worlds, what are they going to look like, and when will we get there? Well, folks. We’re not going there. They are coming here.” He then signals for his big reveal, which is the film’s “ultimate soldier.”

Dillinger, who is shown to be the CEO of a tech company that the trailer notes has put billions into AI research, announces to an applauding crowd. “He’s biblically strong, lightning fast, and supremely intelligent. And if he is struck down on the battlefield…” — at which point, he punches Ares, who was standing next to him on stage, before finishing his quote — “…I will simply make you another.” From that moment, we get to know that Dillinger is a corporate psychopath who thinks he can simply control technology and programming no matter the consequences.

But there might be a wrinkle in Dillinger’s perceived control. As the trailer says, Ares may have been his creation, but the A.I. program has other ideas than what Dillinger thinks. For whatever reason, Ares seeks something that he is not aware of and starts a personal mission to track it down. The trailer also suggests that it will be a moment to reflect on humanity and its digital intelligence with Kevin Flynn showing up in the digital world and staring at Ares. He then asks, “A malfunctioning program that wants to live, why is that?”

Audiences know who Flynn is, and the return of Jeff Bridges as Flynn is itself a hook. Meanwhile, Leto takes on the role of an AI with special strength, speed, and smarts that crosses over into the real world and has his own objectives, adding more layers to the franchise’s conflict of man and machine. One can expect a mix of big ideas with action on the macro and micro levels.

Visually, the film is still looking to be polished as it should be. After all, there are the aesthetics Rønning directs as well as Nine Inch Nails’ music, so long as the former balances out the futuristic tech world and the real world, it should be a treat. Narrative-wise, Disney promises to go in a direction that is unexplored and new for TRON.

After almost a decade since the release of its last entry in the series, TRON: Ares is finally on the horizon, and audiences can look forward to the film coming to theaters on October 10, 2025.