By now, I think we’ve caught on to Disney’s modus operandi in producing the Tron films. That being each new sequel needs a decade+ gap since the last film, cleverly allowing the new movie to see the benefits of the latest advancements in special effects. OK, the actual reasons for the long waits have been typical Hollywood development hell, leading to a 28-year wait until Tron: Legacy (2010) hit theaters. And now, 15 years later, that film has a successor in Tron: Ares, a late-arriving sequel whose existence seems to have been spurred by Disney looking to maximize usage of their available IP. But Tron is actually a risky IP to revive, as weirdly – despite the films being easily recognizable in pop culture – the movies have never been massive box office hits. In fact, the original Tron nearly flopped. Tron: Legacy would go on to do much better at the bank, but thanks to a hefty budget with conflicting reports ranging up to $200 million, the film’s $400 million worldwide haul likely led to a meager profit. This is all to say – Tron is the franchise that just keeps surviving, keeps chugging along, despite the franchise’s revenue falling below expectations.

However, in a glass-half-full sort of way, this is potentially a win for art, as the Tron films’ reception amongst audiences have outpaced its commercial success. This is the type of movie where cinephiles debate and speculate on its greenlight status, hoping against hope that the film will see the light of day to appease science fiction nerds, even if said nerds can’t wrap their heads around the “Hollywood accounting” that justifies the sequel’s existence. But regardless of how and why we got here, more Tron is an intriguing endeavor. For the uninitiated, the films are grandiose sci-fi pieces that lunges its human characters into the world of virtual reality. The original Tron featured a young Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn – an embattled software engineer who fights for his rightful credit on creating the software program at the center of the franchise. The sequel would see Kevin’s son, Sam (Garrett Hedlund), take center stage, but in a story that had to juggle with determining the legacy of Kevin and having to conclude his arc in a meaningful way.

Years later, and it seems Garrett Hedlund has died on the way back to his home planet, as there’s nary a mention of his character this time around. But Bridges is poised to reprise his role in the movie’s featured cameo. Except this time around, the focus isn’t on the Flynns, moving on to a new set of lead characters headed by the internet’s favorite person: Jared Leto. Leto plays the titular Ares, a computer program created by the suits at the film’s fictional software company ENCOM. The official synopsis illustrates some of this dynamic:

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.

Topical, but maybe not for the most exciting reasons. I think with as many headlines that are currently focused on AI and its outlook, it can be difficult to compartmentalize seeing these concepts just casually act as the central conflict in a 4-quadrant tent pole film. When the real-life impact that AI introduces is one of much more serious and much more urgent consequences than a light Disney film can tackle. Nonetheless, it’s the premise we’re rocking with, and one that threatens to blend the real world with the virtual world in ways that the previous Tron films never even attempted. Previewing what this looks like in the final product was the task for the film’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con to answer.

Comic-Con has gone through a lot of changes over the years, a fact accelerated by the pandemic and how that impacted live attendance. But now that the event has settled back into some semblance of “normalcy”, Comic-Con exists now almost as just a cannonball avalanche of shit as studios attempt to produce as many viral and/or memeable moments as possible. Such a serious film like Tron isn’t spared from that media strategy, hence events like the attendees being treated to an elaborate light show, which featured very positive feedback from attendees:

Just as well-received has been the exclusive footage shown at Comic-Con, which thus far has only been described to the wider public, such as this breakdown from IGN:

Lastly, we have the panel itself, moderated by Kevin Smith, and featuring the principal cast of the film, headed by Leto & Bridges:

As far as memorable Hall H introductions are concerned, I don’t think this would make the cut, but it must be pretty cool for all those actors to come out to a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack. It’s also intriguing to see this cast interact with one another, as it seems like the cast is quite close and jovial with one another. Now, on the one hand, that’s very much an intended impression, as you could say imparting the idea that a cast likes each other and loved making this movie is the whole point of a PR tour. But for these folks, it’s either actually genuine adoration or they’re even better actors than we previously thought. However, not sure if Leto ever came back down to earth after Kevin Smith’s “Morbin’ Time!” jab, he seemed somewhere else for a bit after that.

Gillian Anderson seemed not to be taking anything too seriously, adopting a cavalier attitude that may or may not be slightly influenced by some daytime libations – there’s nothing wrong with that, I just found her time on the mic to be amusing. Jodie Turner-Smith I feel did a good job in providing some intrigue around her character, a character (Athena) who we haven’t paid much attention to at all at this point. But she appears satisfied with the arc of the AI character, and the dynamic she shares with Ares, so we’ll see how that plays out. Hasan Minhaj and Arturo Castro appear as if they got into so many shenanigans on set, and damn is Greta Lee excited to be in this movie! Her enthusiasm might have been a bigger sell than anything else said on that stage.

As far as the actual substance of the panel, it’s difficult to articulate a full impression without the clips shown at the event. At this point, it’s to be expected regarding Comic-Con, especially since director Joachim Rønning stated that some VFX shots weren’t even done, thus the general public will likely need to wait a while to see such clips. It’s also become a Comic-Con tradition at this point – the attendees get to enjoy all the new footage, with online fans having to get that dopamine rush from the descriptions of the footage.

So, with that, we’ll leave off with the latest 4K footage we do have, that being the official trailer. While the jury is out on how well this story will be delivered, the trailer sells itself on a medley of picture-perfect special effects. Similarly to Tron: Legacy, Ares wants to follow a similar formula of marrying a wonderland of digital effects with a trippy, mood-setting soundtrack. Then, it was Daft Punk, now it’s Nine Inch Nails. If Ares sticks the landing, maybe we can do this all again in another 15+ years.

Tron: Ares crashes into our world on October 10, 2025.