Grid is live, initiate Tron: Ares.
Despite Tron: Legacy's less-than-desirable box office performance more than a decade ago (given its $170 million budget), Disney is booting up the Grid again in 2025 for Tron 3; that's right, Tron: Ares is downloading soon to the big screen.
A follow-up to Legacy had actually been in the works for a good while, as the franchise has proven successful in other media and Disney Parks. However, crafting the right story was difficult, and so Tron 3 went through several iterations until the company felt good about it and cast Jared Leto in the lead role. Will this turn out alright or be another failed refresh of a dusty movie series that perhaps was never that big to begin with? We'll find out soon enough.
Of course, Tron: Ares won't be the only sci-fi blockbuster coming from Disney in 2025, with several of its studios leaning hard on the genre: We've seen Disney's Lilo & Stitch live-action remake, Pixar's Elio, and we still have The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Predator: Badlands, and Avatar: Fire and Ash to look forward to.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for the previous Tron movies.
Tron: Ares release date
With Predator: Badlands, Zootopia 2, and Avatar: Fire and Ash set to arrive right after, we're not expecting a release date shift in Disney's schedule unless the threequel hits a snag or the strategy is reworked due to external factors.
Tron: Ares will release exclusively in theaters on October 10, 2025. It'll also be taking over as many IMAX screens as possible. If you're staying at home, you probably won't be able to watch it on VOD, physical formats, and Disney Plus until early 2026.
What is the plot of Tron: Ares?
Little is known about the plot of Tron: Ares until marketing starts to boot up and throw previews our way via magazines, stills, or trailers. That said, Disney has already shared a teaser trailer and an official (but brief) synopsis that 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."
We know that Jared Leto is playing the titular Ares, the "highly sophisticated program" looking for something in the real world. Jeff Bridges is returning as Kevin Flynn, but it hasn't been confirmed whether he has a large role or is just back as a glorified cameo. In a conversation with Empire, he admitted he was "a bit surprised" when he was told he'd return after Flynn and CLU seemingly died in Tron: Legacy. "It worked out that I still have some sort of consciousness," he added, leaving things vague until marketing fully kicks off.
For curious newbies: The original Tron (1982) followed Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer and video game developer who found himself transported inside the software world of a huge computer. His adventure involved interacting with programs to escape and, of course, included the iconic Light Cycles. The late 2010 sequel, Tron: Legacy, followed Sam (Flynn's son) responding to a message from his long-lost father. Inside the Grid, he had to team up with the algorithm Quorra and other characters to stop the evil program CLU from, you guessed it, invading the real world.
Empire Magazine's latest issue (at the time of writing) also reveals that Flynn's tech company, ENCOM, is now led by Greta Lee's Eve Kim. Meanwhile, the Dillingers are still searching for Flynn's 'permanence code' to "enable the existence of digital assets in the real world." This raises a number of questions. For example: Is Quorra's presence in the real world unstable in the absence of this code? If you can remember, she entered our world alongside Sam Flynn at the end of Legacy, but as far as we know, they're not part of the threequel. Are they saving a couple of big surprises for the release?
Information is limited, but for now what we do know is that Tron: Ares will split its runtime between the real world and the Grid. This'll be a tricky balancing act, as the previous Tron movies' main strength was how stylish and distinct their representation of a digital world was. With much of the focus being elsewhere, that plot and those all-new characters better be good; if the teaser trailer is any indication, at least the stakes seem pretty high and that the visuals won't disappoint.
Tron: Ares trailers
The first preview of Tron: Ares showed us short glimpses of the rebooted Grid and an incursion (and later a full-blown invasion) into the real world which almost feels alien in nature. There's also views of citizens, law enforcement, and some high-profile actors looking confused. Watch the trailer here:
On July 17, a second, full-length trailer gave us the narrative hook – the Dillingers are looking to create and control digital warriors brought into our world – and Flynn's big return. Alongside this there are lots of new action beats which admittedly look stunning. You can see what we're talking about here:
We'll keep this article updated with new trailers and bits of relevant info as they come. For now, you can also enjoy these cool teaser posters released alongside the trailers:
Tron: Ares cast
Beyond Jared Leto as the main lead, Tron: Ares' cast is bringing in fresh and veteran faces that could help the movie trend instead of crash. This is what the star-studded roster is looking like at the moment:
- Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club, Suicide Squad) as Ares
- Evan Peters (American Horror Story, Monsters) as Julian Dillinger
- Greta Lee (Russian Doll, Past Lives) as Eve Kim
- Jodie Turner-Smith (After Yang, Star Wars: The Acolyte)
- Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski, True Grit) as Kevin Flynn
- Gillian Anderson (The X-Files, Sex Education)
- Cameron Monaghan (Gotham, Star Wars Jedi games)
- Sarah Desjardins (Riverdale, Yellowjackets)
- Arturo Castro (Narcos, The Menu)
- Hasan Minhaj (Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, It Ends with Us)
Tron: Ares director, writers, & crew
Joachim Rønning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Young Woman and the Sea) took over the project from Garth Davis, who left around early 2023. The final script was written by Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials, Enola Holmes) after Jesse Wigutow (Daredevil: Born Again) worked on a past iteration of the movie alongside Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski. David DiGilio (The Terminal List) is also credited as having worked on the story.
The cinematography has been handled by Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network, Gone Girl). Another exciting touch is that legendary American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails (NIN) is producing the score after Daft Punk was disbanded; surprisingly, Tron: Ares will be credited to NIN instead of simply Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor (its two permanent members). Tyler Nelson (Creed III, The Batman) is the editor.
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