- calendar_today August 29, 2025
From Virtual to Reality: TRON: Ares Trailer Unveiled
Disney has set San Diego Comic-Con in two weeks and is no doubt looking to drum up more excitement for its headline presentation in the run-up to the event. To that end, the Mouse House dropped a new trailer for TRON: Ares, the newest installment in the beloved sci-fi franchise. Directed by Joachim Rønning, the film serves as a sequel to 2010’s TRON: Legacy — and as the title suggests, a new entry in the series that moves the series’ action out of the Grid and into the real world.
TRON: Legacy ended with the Grid’s malevolent program Clu foiled in his plan to merge the virtual world with reality by Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the son of TRON’s hero Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges). Sam also eluded Clu long enough to escape with Quorra (Olivia Wilde), a rare form of isomorphic algorithm, or ISO, being hunted for deletion by Clu and his program army.
A third film in the franchise was in the works that would have opened where TRON: Legacy left off. Disney greenlit a script in October 2010 for a film that would tell the story of Sam and Quorra as the former inherits his late father’s business, ENCOM. Development of the project stalled, and in 2015, the studio officially canceled the project. It was reported that one of the factors in its decision was a lack of confidence following the weak performance of another Disney sci-fi film, Tomorrowland.
The TRON franchise got another second chance when Disney resurrected plans for a third film in 2020. This time around, the film was positioned as a reboot rather than a direct sequel to Legacy. However, some elements remained, including a character from previous scripts, Ares, a program with a significant history in the AI of the Grid. The film was a roller coaster due to pandemic-related production delays and industry shutdowns, thanks to Hollywood’s more recent labor strikes. TRON: Ares has finally completed production and is now ready for release, coming to theaters in fall 2025.
Per Disney, “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.” Jared Leto stars as Ares, with Evan Peters and Greta Lee costarring as Julian Dillinger and Eve Kim, respectively. The cast also includes Jodie Turner-Smith, Cameron Monaghan, Sarah Desjardins, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, and Gillian Anderson. Jeff Bridges will also return in the role of Kevin Flynn for the latest installment. The film’s score will be handled by industrial rock titans Nine Inch Nails.
TRON: Ares Trailer Details: When A.I. Meets Humanity
TRON: Ares dropped its first trailer back in April. That first trailer gave fans a crash course in the TRON visual aesthetic, including neon geometry lines, lightcycles, and the franchise’s hallmark digital vistas. While the original trailer did little to hint at the film’s narrative, the second trailer released this week expands upon the look with a peek at what’s at stake.
The new trailer opens with a scene that wouldn’t be out of place at a tech industry keynote. Julian Dillinger is giving a speech before a crowd. “So much talk of AI and big tech today,” Dillinger proclaims to the audience. “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 pauses for a beat before continuing, and a burst of pixels reveals “the ultimate soldier.” After making a show of his creation — in a move reminiscent of a similar scene in Ex Machina, Dillinger taunts his creation and audience with, “He’s biblically strong, lightning fast, and supremely intelligent. And if he is struck down on the battlefield…” Dillinger drops Ares to the ground at that point in his speech, “…I will simply make you another.” It’s a move designed to flex ego that also establishes Dillinger as the film’s primary antagonist, one who sees himself in full control of the future of AI.
Of course, the trailer may not tell the whole story. Dillinger may believe he’s in full control and Ares is his creation to wield as he sees fit, but Ares also seems to have a mission all his own. In the first half of the trailer, Ares is introduced as Dillinger’s weapon, but he later embarks on a mission of his own, searching for something he can’t name. Dillinger’s claim to ownership over Ares will likely be tested when Ares inevitably crosses the line into a being of his own. Such a dynamic could also play as a larger philosophical question in the film, particularly at the moment where Kevin Flynn, looking through a virtual window, asks, “A malfunctioning program who wants to live, why is that?”
Filmmakers have built a significant amount of intrigue into the film’s narrative, but Bridges’ return will likely be an immediate incentive for fans of the original. Leto’s turn as an A.I. whose movement into the real world blurs the line between the franchise’s digital creations and humanity will no doubt bring added dimensions to a franchise that has always interrogated the boundary between man and machine.
The visual polish of the TRON film has been a major throughline over the years, and Rønning’s direction here appears to have built an enticing blend of futuristic techscapes as the Ares leaves the grid and much more grounded real-world environments for its action sequences. Couple those visuals with a score by Nine Inch Nails, and TRON: Ares is set to deliver on the big-screen spectacle audiences have come to expect, but also to put its action in new worlds.
TRON: Ares has been a long time coming, but now it’s finally here. Keep your eyes on the skies — on October 10, 2025, the film will make its way into theaters around the world.
