Tron: Ares footage was shown at Comic-Con

TRON: Ares, the highly anticipated third installment in the groundbreaking TRON franchise, is set to reach theatres on October 10th – and with just over two months to go before that date arrives, a TRON: Ares panel was held at San Diego Comic-Con to build the hype.

The film was directed by Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales director Joachim Rønning and stars Jared Leto (Morbius), Cameron Monaghan (Gotham), 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), Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen & Slim), and returning TRON star Jeff Bridges. Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver, Justin Springer, Jared Leto, Emma Ludbrook, and Steven Lisberger are the producers, with Russell Allen serving as executive producer.

Scripted by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne, TRON: Ares tells 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 put 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. The TRON: Ares rumblings started around 2017, but it didn’t go into production until 2024.

JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray was in attendance for the Comic-Con panel, and he sent in the following report: Kevin Smith was the moderator and joked that the stage entrance they did cost more than Clerks. The whole cast was there, including Jeff Bridges and the original TRON director Steven Lisberger. Bridges said, “It’s so cool man! It’s such a fun world to be a part of and AI is on everyone’s minds these days. The Grid abides!” Steven Lisberger: “As far out as TRON originally was, it became real life. We need to kick this technology around artistically before it kicks us around. That’s what TRON’s all about. That, and Bridges’s courageous acting. He has been a gift to TRON since day one.” Lisberger is happy if TRON inspired others – like The Matrix. Smith noted they didn’t nominate TRON for VFX at the Oscars because using computers was considered cheating. Lisberger says it wasn’t that they were early, it’s that everyone else is late.

Jared Leto was the one who pushed for another movie. He says he’s a legit huge fan, going back to when he was a kid in 1982. Also says Bridges is a hero of his. He says when he was young movies like TRON gave him something to dream of. Says he has worked on getting the movie made for nine years and it all started with just one word, ARES. Bridges said on set Leto only wanted to be called Ares. But instead he called him Air instead because he wanted some intricacy with him, but also didn’t want to disrespect him. Leto also said he blew the first scene they shot together because he couldn’t stop smiling. Bridges said him and Leto got along because they are both “music cats” and says for Leto acting is like a thing on the side.

Greta Lee says she’s in TRON just because she wanted to ride a light cycle. She had never been to Comic-Con before and said it wasn’t what she expected. She said that, for some reason, she thought everyone would be wearing masks. She’s crazy excited to be in a movie like this and said the movie will play to both the superfans and people who don’t know anything about TRON.

A clip was show in which Athena, Jodie Turner Smith’s character, enters the world to retrieve code for Lee’s character Eve. The music is awesome, very Nine Inch Nails but done on old school synths so it sounds like Wendy Carlos’s score for the original. The scene showed the two programs on Lightcycles in the real world chasing Eve on her regular motorcycle. Seeing the lightcycles in the real world is nuts. The action is incredible and everyone is going to want to own the score. At some point, Eve gets Athena’s lightcycle, but that’s where the clip ends

Turner revealed a bit about the premise which seems to be that Ares, being in the real world, becomes compassionate and more human while Athena goes in the other direction.

Evan Peters seemed to have no idea how to answer any questions, and Smith jokingly called him “Dahmer quiet.” Gillian Anderson said she’s done Hall H before a few times and it seemed bigger back then. Cameron Monaghan says seeing the sets – which were practical – absolutely blew his mind. They actually built pieces of the Grid.

Then more footage was shown. Athena is clearly the bad guy, working for Dillinger (Peters), while Ares is the hero, trying to protect Greta Lee’s character. He was assigned to delete her by Dillinger but could not bring himself to kill a human. Now her and Ares are on the run in the Grid, which looks a lot different than in Legacy – more of a dystopia with red lighting. Ares is red, but Greta Lee’s character is Blue. More NIN – the score also has vocals by Reznor so it really is a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack, not just Reznor/ Ross. Very cool looking movie.

Jared Leto loved the Daft Punk soundtrack on the last film and felt only NIN could fill their shoes. Smith asked him why 30 Seconds to Mars didn’t participate and he dodged the question. Also said the crew that worked on the movie was incredible and thinks they deserve to be celebrated. Then attendees watched a music video from the soundtrack for the NIN single “As Alive As You Need Me To Be,” which is now available to download.

Are you looking forward to TRON: Ares? What do you think of the information that came out of the Comic-Con panel? Let us know by leaving a comment below.