The long-awaited third entry in the Tron franchise is finally in production. Six years after it was first announced that Jared Leto was in talks to star in a Tron project called Tron: Ares, the movie was all set to start filming last August – but then it had to wait out the writers and actors strikes. With those strikes over, filming is finally underway. Earlier today, we heard a quote from cast member Cameron Monaghan (Gotham), who said this film will “really push forward what can be done, from a visual perspective.” Now, we have another quote about the movie – and this is the one that every Tron fan has been waiting to hear. A quote that confirms original Tron star Jeff Bridges is returning for Tron: Ares!

Bridges himself told the Film Comment podcast (with thanks to The Playlist for the transcription), “I’m heading off this Saturday to play a part in the third installment of the Tron story; I’m excited about that. It’s wild. Jared Leto is the star of this third one, and I’m really anxious to work with him, and I’ve admired his work.” The actor also took a moment to talk about the technology used to bring these films to the screen, and his de-aged appearance in the previous film, Tron: Legacy: “[I’m really excited] to see what the technology is going to be all about [this time]. When I did Tron: Legacy, we had to put all these dots on our face and all these kinds of things. And that’s [probably] all passé. I had to see myself as a young guy or as another character, but the same guy, but it was gonna be digitally created. I think it was [de-aging], but I didn’t like the way I looked in it; I felt like I looked more like Bill Maher than myself; it was kind of bizarre [laughs]. I’m anxious to see what the technology and what it will be. I hear there’s even less A.I. stuff in this. It’s going to be more a practical set, and they’re beautiful; there are beautiful sets that I’ve seen.“

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales director Joachim Rønning is at the helm of Tron: Ares. In addition to Bridges, Monaghan, and Jared Leto (Morbius), the film also stars Evan Peters (Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), Greta Lee (Past Lives), Sarah Desjardins (Yellowjackets), Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), Hasan Minhaj (No Hard Feelings), Arturo Castro (Road House), and Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim). We’ve also heard a rumor that Cillian Murphy might be reprising his Tron: Legacy role to be the villain in this film. 

Scripted by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne, Tron: Ares is said to tell the story of 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. Leto is playing Ares. As Deadline puts it, Ares is “a fictional character who crosses over from the world of videogames to planet Earth.”

For twenty-eight years, director Steven Lisberger’s cult classic Tron was a standalone sci-fi adventure. Then in 2010 Joseph Kosinski took fans back to the world of Tron with the film Tron: Legacy – and since then things have been a bit messy. Kosinski wanted to make a third Tron film, to be called Tron: Ascension, but Disney cancelled the project when their movie Tomorrowland underperformed. Apparently the script for Tron: Ascension would have featured a character named Ares… and somehow the idea for that character has evolved into Tron: Ares. Kosinski had said that he had nearly given Leto a cameo in Tron: Legacy, in the End of Line club where Lisberger did make a cameo.

Leto is producing Tron: Ares with Emma Ludbrook and Jeffrey Springer. Russell Allen serves as executive producer.

Are you looking forward to Tron: Ares, and are you glad to hear that Jeff Bridges is in the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Tron: Ares is scheduled to reach theatres on October 10, 2025.

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