The Tron Franchise Just Completely Flipped Its Premise Around
It’s more than a game now.
During a 2023 Hollywood Reporter roundtable interview, Pedro Pascal described how he felt playing The Last of Us for the first time. “What video game was it?” piped up Jeff Bridges. “‘Cause I got sucked into a video game once. Tron.”
The moment went viral, proving that Disney’s revolutionary sci-fi movie is still beloved decades later. Now, after a sequel movie and countless spinoffs and tie-ins, the next Tron movie, Tron: Ares, turns the saga on its head, reflecting how sci-fi technology isn’t just for video games anymore. Check out the new trailer below, and see how the storied franchise is completely switching up its premise.
From the get-go, it’s obvious this is a Tron movie for the AI age. “So much talk of A.I. and big tech today,” the villainous Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) says. “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.” He then introduces Ares (Jared Leto), an artificially intelligent soldier who can be mass-manufactured.
A later clip shows Elisabeth Dillinger (Gillian Anderson) warning Julian that he’s no longer in control of his army. Now, Tron technology is fully independent and wreaking havoc in the real world. It’s not just Kevin Flynn in danger now — it’s humanity.
Jeff Bridges appears as a hologram of Kevin Flynn in Tron: Ares.
Like any good “legacyquel,” there’s a cameo by the original star. A hologram version of Flynn, played by Bridges, appears in the trailer to ask Ares about his mission. “A malfunctioning program who wants to live,” he says. “Why is that?” “It's just... a feeling,” Ares replies.
In an age where you can’t escape talk of AI, Ares couldn’t be more timely. Hopefully, if ChatGPT ever rises against us, it won’t have a lightcycle.
