Tron: Ares

Development

Original concept

Development of a sequel to Tron: Legacy was announced in October 2010 by franchise creator Steven Lisberger, with Legacy screenwriters Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz set to return.[11][12] In April 2011, director Joseph Kosinski stated the script was still in development, and confirmed that the story would continue from Tron: Legacy. He stated that the relationship of the characters of Garrett Hedlund's Sam Flynn and Olivia Wilde's Quorra would be "the next step", with the plot following their adventures in the real world.[13] On March 31, 2011, Kosinski said that the film's script was expected to be finished in two weeks and its working title was TR3N.[14]

In June, it was reported that screenwriter David DiGilio was hired to write the screenplay, as Kitsis and Horowitz had dropped out to develop their television series Once Upon a Time.[15] In March 2012, Bruce Boxleitner stated he believed filming could potentially begin as early as 2014, after Kosinski was available following his commitments to the film Oblivion.[16] In June, Kitsis and Horowitz stated that they were still involved with the project,[17] though by December, Jesse Wigutow had been hired to rewrite the script.[18] That same month, Boxleitner and Hedlund were confirmed to be returning for the sequel.[19]

In March 2015, it was revealed that Disney had officially greenlit the third film with Hedlund, Kosinski and Wilde set to return, and production due to begin in October in Vancouver.[20][21][22] In May, it was announced that Disney had scrapped the film,[23][24] Hedlund stated the reason for the cancellation was a result of the box office failure of Tomorrowland.[25] In July, Boxleitner announced the cancellation of the film had ended his interest in returning to the franchise.[26] In September, Hedlund stated he was told that the sequel was not "totally dead", and would be interested in returning should a new film be announced.[27]

In August 2016, Brigham Taylor, then a development executive at Disney, revealed discussions were being had about Tron future.[28] In 2017, Kosinski stated that the sequel was in more of a "cryogenic freeze" as opposed to completely cancelled. He attributed Disney's then-recent acquisition of Lucasfilm and Marvel as reasons for Tron being put on the backburner.[29] According to producer Justin Springer, the title for the abandoned sequel was Tron: Ascension.[6][30]

Redevelopment as Ares

In March 2017, it was reported the franchise would be moving towards a reboot instead of a Legacy sequel, with Jared Leto attached to produce and portray a new character named Ares that was retained from prior iterations of the Ascension script.[31] The seeds of the film was traced to a conversation between Springer and Lisberger during development of Legacy about how the latter came up with the original film, that being how there was an obsession with a first encounter with aliens in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he lived around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), leading him to wonder what if intelligent life didn't come from outer space but from inside a machine created by people yet not controlled by them. The Ascension script was abandoned, but the filmmakers made a conscious decision to develop some of the Ares story from that version, particularly its core concept due to their idea that it remained relevant. They said that since the release of Legacy, the concept of Ares and its retention of older ideas had become more relevant with each year until its release instead of becoming more dated.[32] In August 2020, Garth Davis was hired to direct the film, with Wigutow still attached to write the screenplay.[33] Patrice Vermette at the time had been hired as production designer.[34]

In March 2022, Leto confirmed that the film was still happening.[35] By January 2023, Davis had exited as director, with Joachim Rønning entering negotiations to take the directing job. Vermette would also depart as production designer.[34] In June, Evan Peters, Greta Lee, and Jodie Turner-Smith joined the cast, and Jack Thorne was revealed to have written a draft of the script.[36][37][38] Cameron Monaghan and Sarah Desjardins would be added the following month.[39][40] In January 2024, Gillian Anderson joined the cast in an undisclosed role.[41] Legacy has teasers, but Rønning confirmed in September 2025 that Jeff Bridges would be the only returning actor from previous films, reprising his role as Kevin Flynn, and he affirmed that neither Hedlund as Sam Flynn or Cillian Murphy as Ed Dillinger Jr. would return from Legacy, both due to creative choices and a lack of interest from the actors' part. Springer also said that "throwing" cameo appearances in like a "parade of people" felt like fan service which would not serve the story, so they opted to only bring back characters in a way that reminded the audience of their love for the franchise, but by surprising them in a way that works.[42] The film is not set to address the cliffhanger ending of Legacy or the fates of Sam and Quorra, but Springer affirmed that it does not contradict that ending and that Legacy remains canon.[32]

The studio planned to add an AI-generated character that would have been a sidekick to Flynn, a soldier named Bit entering the real world, but the plan was abandoned before filming to avoid potential controversy in the midst of societal and governmental issues surrounding the regulation of AI in filmmaking.[43][44] Bit is still present in the final film, portrayed identically to the original Tron, as an object able to speak only "yes" or "no", representing the maximum two states a binary bit of information can hold.

Filming

Principal photography was scheduled to begin in Vancouver[45] on August 14, 2023, but was postponed indefinitely due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America and the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes.[46][47] Following the conclusion of the strikes in early November 2023, filming was reportedly set to begin in early 2024.[48] In November 2023, it was announced that production on the project would officially begin following the holiday season of the same year.[49] In January 2024, Rønning revealed production had begun,[50] under the working title Velcro.[51] Jeff Cronenweth serves as cinematographer.[52] A first look image was released by Disney in February, with Hasan Minhaj and Arturo Castro added to the cast.[53] Production occurred on the Cambie Bridge overnight on March 15.[54] In April, Jeff Bridges, who portrayed Kevin Flynn and Clu in the previous Tron films, confirmed his involvement in the film.[55] Filming wrapped on May 1.[56] Jesse Wigutow received sole credit for the film's screenplay, along with a story credit with David Digilio. Off-screen additional literary material credits were attributed to Jez Butterworth, Brian Duffield, Justin Haythe, Nicole Holofcener, Tom McCarthy, Megan McDonnell, Jack Thorne, Billy Ray, and Legacy screenwriters Horowitz and Kitsis.[57]

Post-production

Tyler Nelson serves as the editor.[58] The film's visual effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Distillery VFX, Image Engine, Lola VFX, GMUNK, OPSIS and Imaginary Forces, with David Seager serving as the film's visual effects supervisor.[59]

Additional music

Alongside the Nine Inch Nails score, recordings by other artists are also featured in Tron: Ares:[73]

• "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath
• "We'll Never Know" by Stick to Your Guns
• "If Our Love Is Dead" by Royel Otis
• "Just Can't Get Enough" by Depeche Mode (the song and the band are directly referenced in the film dialogue)[74]
• "Summer Breeze" by Seals & Crofts
• "Theme from Tron" and "Tron Scherzo" by Wendy Carlos performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Theatrical

Tron: Ares was released theatrically on October 10, 2025, including in RealD 3D, 4DX, ScreenX, Dolby Cinema, and IMAX.[83][84] Tron: Ares marks the first film in the Tron series to be given a PG-13 rating by the Motion Picture Association, after its predecessors were rated PG.

Home media

Tron: Ares was released for digital purchase and rental on December 2, 2025, and for 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on January 6, 2026.[86] It was released on Disney+ on January 7, 2026 with the IMAX Enhanced version of the film.[87][88]

In the United States, Tron: Ares topped Fandango at Home's weekly digital sales and rental chart for the week ending December 7, following its premium digital release on December 2. The film remained within the chart's top ten through the week ending January 4.[89] Streaming analytics firm FlixPatrol, which tracks daily video-on-demand charts and streaming rankings worldwide, announced that it ranked first or second in nearly every country where Disney+ is available within two days of its debut on the platform.[90] The film later reached the top position on Disney+'s global Top 10 list, outperforming titles including Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water within a week of its streaming release.[91] Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on certain U.S. television screens, reported that the film generated 258 million minutes of viewing time from January 5–11, ranking as the fourth most-streamed film during that period.[92][93]

Box office

Tron: Ares grossed $73.2 million in the United States and Canada and $69.1 million in other territories for a total of $142.2 million worldwide.[3][4] The film was a box-office bomb, with Deadline Hollywood reporting a total cost of $347.5 million, including production and advertising, and estimating that it ultimately would lose the studio over $132 million with an estimated box office total gross of $160 million—a figure it ultimately fell short of.[94]

In its worldwide opening weekend, Tron: Ares was projected to gross $45–50 million in the United States and Canada and an additional $40–45 million overseas for a total of $85–95 million.[95][96] The film made $4.8 million from advanced screenings and Thursday night previews.[97] Following its domestic opening day of $14.3 million (including previews), weekend estimates were lowered to $35 million.[98] It debuted to $33.5 million in the U.S. and Canada, leading the domestic box office but falling short of Legacy's $44 million opening (unadjusted for inflation), and grossed $60 million worldwide.[99][100] In its second weekend, the film dropped 65%, grossing $11 million, finishing second behind newcomer Black Phone 2.[101]

Critical response

Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of B+ on an A+ to F scale, the same grade as its predecessors, and the PostTrak definite recommend score was 57%.[94]

David Rooney, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, praised Jared Leto's "refreshingly subdued performance" as the eponymous digital program, highlighting how this restrained approach added both an "emotional hook" and an "occasional touch of humor", and commended the film's design for honoring the franchise's roots while taking "significant steps forward".[102] Tara Brady of The Irish Times echoed this sentiment, writing that Ares was better than its predecessor, citing the soundtrack and performances (particularly Leto and Lee), but noting that it "could pass for a visual album".[103] In a four-out-of-four-star review, Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com called it "spectacularly designed, swiftly paced, thoughtfully written, and directed within an inch of its neon-hued life".[104] Wendy Ide of The Observer explained that "Tron: Ares posits the terrifying possibility that AI may not destroy the human race but could just be really sanctimonious and annoying, with its perfect skin tone and chiselled bone structure and prolonged, meaningful eye contact".[105] Katie Walsh of Chicago Tribune wrote, "Rønning, who helmed a later Pirates of the Caribbean film and Young Woman and the Sea, provides serviceable direction of the material without offering much innovation. The film loses fidelity toward the end, as it becomes a crashy, pixelated monster movie, as the real world has no capability for hosting the sleek, bloodless appeal of the grid".[106]

John Nugent of Empire magazine gave the film three stars out of five, writing that "You'll coo... in the manner of a toddler having some keys jangled at them", and calling it "fun if forgettable futuristic fluff."[107] David Ehrlich of IndieWire graded the film C+, praising the score by Nine Inch Nails as playing a "pivotal role in giving this sequel its own sense of violent self-identity".[108] Kyle Smith of The Wall Street Journal stated that "Tron: Ares is essentially a laser-light-show redo of the first two Terminator movies, with Eve as Sarah Connor, minus the suspense, the scares and the witty dialogue".[109] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film one star out of five, calling it "mind-bendingly dull".[110] Robbie Collin of The Telegraph and Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent also awarded the film one star.[111][112]

In an October 2025 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Bridges reflected on the film's performance and expressed hope that it would receive a cult following over time.[113]

Accolades