Jared Leto’s Ares Shines in TRON’s Latest Sci-Fi Spectacle

San Diego Comic-Con is quickly approaching, and Disney is teasing its highly anticipated event by sharing a new trailer for TRON: Ares, the newest entry in the eponymous franchise. Directed by Joachim Rønning, the third TRON installment is a reboot of the series that brings the digital sci-fi story to the real world.

The last time audiences were on the Grid was back in 2010’s TRON: Legacy, which took place after Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the son of TRON legend Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), thwarted an attempt to merge the Grid with the real world by Clu, a corrupted copy of Flynn. Sam also successfully extracted Quorra (Olivia Wilde), a unique isomorphic algorithm (ISO) that was made for integration with the Grid, who had been on the Grid as one of many hunted by Clu for deletion.

At one point, Disney was ready to move on to the third TRON. Following the success of Legacy, the studio greenlit a direct sequel in October 2010, with a story set in motion by Sam and Quorra, as the former takes control of his late father’s business, ENCOM. Development ground to a halt, however, and a full sequel was officially put on pause by the studio in 2015, reportedly because of the poor box office performance of another Disney sci-fi film, Tomorrowland.

The TRON franchise would eventually return to life, however. The film was back in development in 2020 as a full reboot, rather than picking up from where Legacy left off, and it began to take shape in that direction while still retaining some elements of the script written for the now-defunct sequel, such as the introduction of the Ares character, an AI presence on the Grid that would have played a major part in both storylines. After years of delays due to pandemic production shutdowns and even Hollywood’s recent labor strikes, TRON: Ares has since entered the history books.

Per Disney’s synopsis of the film, “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 in the lead role, joined by Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger and Greta Lee as Eve Kim. The rest of the cast includes Jodie Turner-Smith, Cameron Monaghan, Sarah Desjardins, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, and Gillian Anderson. Jeff Bridges is also set to return to reprise his role as Kevin Flynn, while the music is composed by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails.

New Trailer: “He’s biblically strong, lightning fast, and supremely intelligent”

The original first trailer was released back in April and managed to set the pulse racing thanks to the return of the brand of colorful neon elements that TRON is known for, from the characters made of digital light, to the lightcycles, and the overall neon aesthetic. While it was a thrilling watch, it offered few details of the film’s narrative and characters. The newest trailer released this week provides a much clearer understanding of the central conflict.

The trailer opens to a crowd in an auditorium, as if for a major corporate tech event. Julian Dillinger is on the stage, introducing the potential of artificial intelligence, asking the crowd, “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.”

At this, Dillinger seemingly reveals his latest experiment, an “ultimate soldier,” who steps on stage with the confident Dillinger introducing him as Ares. In a display of egotism, he boasts of Ares’ abilities as “biblically strong, lightning fast, and supremely intelligent. And if he is struck down on the battlefield…” as Dillinger hits the creation down, interrupting his sentence, “…I will simply make you another.” Ares appears to represent not only the future of AI but also the hubris of Dillinger as a businessman who thinks he has complete control over the narrative of AIs and their future.

There’s also a sense, though, that Dillinger is wrong in thinking Ares was just his creation for his use. Ares, for his part, is out for something that he needs. The Program takes on a personal journey, one that finds itself searching for an unspoken answer. At the same time, Kevin Flynn’s presence in the Grid frames this journey with a philosophical element as he questions, “A malfunctioning program who wants to live, why is that?”

For those who were fans of the original, they’ll surely be tickled by the return of Bridges as Flynn. And for others, Leto brings on some intriguing shades of his own with his humanless AI jumping into the real world. Ares is bound to raise big questions, not only about the nature of AIs in this universe, but also about the creator and the created.

Visually, the aesthetic continues to be what most are drawn to in TRON, and Rønning’s work in both worlds — those of the digital and the physical — will likely feel quite familiar for fans of the earlier films, but elevated in its polish. The work of Nine Inch Nails, in the musical score, is sure to match the film’s visuals with its brand of experience.

After several long years of tumultuous development, TRON: Ares seems to finally be getting underway. For those who are keeping track of the film, the date to circle is October 10, 2025, when the film is set to hit theaters worldwide.