SDCC Preview: TRON: Ares and the Rise of AI in Sci-Fi

San Diego Comic-Con is less than a week away, and Disney’s prime time showing at the pop culture mecca is still a few days away. In the meantime, to help drum up excitement for its fan-favorite franchise, the Mouse House has released a new trailer for TRON: Ares.

TRON: Ares, directed by Joachim Rønning, is a new installment in Disney’s franchise that marks a new chapter in the series’ mythology. Where most TRON movies take place entirely within the digital Grid (aka, “The World Inside the Computer”), Ares features an original story that pits key characters in the real world.

TRON: Legacy was the last TRON movie set in the Grid, released all the way back in 2010. It followed Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the son of TRON’s original hero Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), and his adventure when he was lured back to his father’s home in the Grid by a menacing program named Clu. After Sam foiled his schemes and made his escape with Quorra (Olivia Wilde), a powerful and unusual isomorphic algorithm (ISO), the plan was to continue the story immediately in TRON 3.

Disney initially greenlit the sequel in October 2010. Sam and Quorra were going to explore the Grid together after Sam took over his father’s company ENCOM, as per the ending of TRON: Legacy. But it took too long for the project to come together, and by 2015, Disney pulled the plug. Rumors swirled that TRON 3’s misfortunes were tied to the box office disappointment of another of Disney’s sci-fi efforts, Tomorrowland.

The TRON franchise’s next chapter did not come until 2020, when the studio decided to reboot the series with a standalone film rather than a continuation of Legacy. Some of the most famous story points from earlier TRON 3 scripts carried over into the new film, though, including Program Ares, a presence in previous drafts of the film who was the de facto A.I. of the Grid. After an agonizing journey to completion marred by the pandemic and theater shutdowns as well as the industry’s recent strikes, the film is finally done.

The synopsis provided by Disney reads as follows: “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.” Leto stars in the film as Ares, with Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger and Greta Lee as Eve Kim. Other cast members in the film include Jodie Turner-Smith, Cameron Monaghan, Sarah Desjardins, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, and Gillian Anderson. Longtime TRON fans will be happy to see Bridges return to the franchise as Flynn, and the film will be scored by Nine Inch Nails.

TRON: Ares Trailer Teases “Ultimate Soldier” Invading Reality

Fans first got a look at TRON: Ares in a trailer released in April, which offered an encapsulation of TRON’s vibrant style. The first glimpses featured TRON’s neon green lines, the Grid’s refracted patterns, gleaming lightcycles, and iconic avatars from the franchise’s past. But like the rest of Ares, the trailer gave little away about the story itself.

The sequel’s latest trailer, though, continues that visual aesthetic while giving viewers a better sense of the new TRON movie’s stakes.

The action kicks off at a presentation that appears to be straight out of a real-world tech industry keynote. Evan Peters’ Julian Dillinger is on stage giving a speech when he makes an interesting claim: “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 reveals his creation, the “ultimate soldier,” whom he calls Ares. He claims for himself a godlike control over this new A.I. threat, saying of Ares, “He’s biblically strong, lightning fast, and supremely intelligent. And if he is struck down on the battlefield…” At this point, he knocks Ares over during his speech, “…I will simply make you another.” By the end of the trailer, it is clear that Dillinger is a powerful tech executive and a gleefully evil one at that. He is making the world’s next biggest threat, and he fully believes he is in control of the timeline.

But the trailer also seems to suggest he is wrong. While Ares may be Dillinger’s creation, and while he may view Ares as only an extension of his will, Ares does not share that view. Ares goes on his quest for something that the A.I. does not completely understand. This hints at the more philosophical subtext that fans can expect, as Kevin Flynn himself is introduced to the digital world and ponders aloud, “A malfunctioning program who wants to live, why is that?”

It is certainly exciting to see Bridges’ Flynn again. But the prospect of Leto’s character and his odyssey into a world he is only allowed to pass through like any other sets up new variations on TRON’s central themes, the limits between humanity and machinery. If there is one thing to expect out of a new TRON movie, it is the stylistic sheen of Rønning’s direction, the contrast of digital and real, and the kind of monumental scale that has become a part of the legacy. Coupled with a Nine Inch Nails score, Ares could be the kind of experience that raises the bar for the big-screen aesthetics of live-action sci-fi.

TRON: Ares should be hitting theaters by the end of next year. On October 10, 2025, audiences will get to see Ares step off the Grid into the real world for the first time.