Tron: Ares is set to be released in theaters in October 2025, and the footage released so far highlights a massive change that it will take some time to get used to. Tron: Ares will serve as a sequel to the 1982 film Tron and the 2010 film Tron: Legacy, which saw characters from the real world enter the virtual reality of The Grid. Following the ending of Tron: Legacy, the Flynn family’s time entering the virtual world was seemingly over, but Tron: Ares promises a very different approach, with a program entering the real world.
Though Tron: Legacy ultimately saw the program Quorra enter the real world, the hazardous program, Clu, was defeated, implying that the portal had been closed. Tron: Ares’ trailer has confirmed that the action from The Grid will enter the real world. The upcoming Tron sequel will follow Jared Leto’s Ares, a program given a dangerous mission in the real world. With Tron: Ares centering on a program as the main character for the first time, director Joachim Rønning’s sequel is set to be a massive departure from previous installments.
It Will Be Hard To Get Used To Tron: Ares’s Digital Elements In The Real World
It Marks A Complete Reversal From Previous Films
When Tron was first released in the early 1980s, its use of CGI and plot surrounding a character entering a virtual reality was groundbreaking. Likewise, the updated story for Tron: Legacy, which saw Sam Flynn enter The Grid in search of his father, made use of the same virtual reality setting that allowed human characters to interact with computer programs. While Tron: Ares will still see humans and programs interacting, this will be the first time that audiences will see them do so in the real world rather than in The Grid.
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Along with Jared Leto’s Ares program entering the real world, the Tron: Ares trailer has already shown that The Grid’s technology will enter the real world as well. The footage shows seemingly malevolent programs riding light cycles in the real world, and the cycles have the capacity to split cars in half. Tron: Ares‘ trailer also shows its human characters looking on in horror as huge gravity-defying Grid light ships fly through the air above them. While the clip shows human forces attempting to fight back, it seems that the technology of The Grid is far superior.
What The Real World Setting Means For Tron: Ares
The New Setting Will Massively Change The Franchise
Tron: Ares‘s new setting and digital elements may feel like a strange addition to the series compared to how the past installations have looked, but it does have the potential to be very entertaining if done right. The real world setting raises Ares‘ stakes significantly from the other Tron movies. While there was always a direct threat to the main characters of the Tron films and a hint that evil programs would attempt to harm the real world, the larger population was never in any significant danger. Tron: Ares completely changes that.
Tron: Ares hints at an all-out war between humanity and programs.
The existence of numerous programs and the advanced technology of The Grid venturing out into the real world is incredibly dangerous, and Tron: Ares hints at an all-out war between humanity and programs. Given what the trailer reveals that the programs and their technology can do, it seems safe to say that people will be fighting an uphill battle. Though this is a huge departure that will take some getting used to, Tron: Ares does have a lot of potential, and I hope it fully pays off its concept.
- Release Date
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October 10, 2025
- Director
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Joachim Rønning
- Writers
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Jack Thorne, Jesse Wigutow