Jeff Bridges Logs Onto ‘Tron: Ares', Establishing Reconnections
Jeff Bridges Logs Onto ‘Tron: Ares', Establishing Reconnections
The third film in Disney’s 40-year-old sci-fi franchise isn’t looking so much like a standalone anymore
Tron: Ares, the third film in the Disney sci-fi franchise the company is seemingly only interested in following up decades at a time, has brought back its first cast member from the previous two films: Jeff Bridges.
Bridges actually was in a dual role for both films. There was the human Kevin Flynn, the video arcade owner, programmer and video game developer at ENCOM who after experiencing the company’s virtual reality in the first film rose to CEO of ENCOM International at the end of it and created the Tron arcade game in-universe only to disappear back into the game seven years later. Such disappearance happened because Clu (Codified Likeness Utility), the hacking program Flynn developed to uncover evidence of theft and plagiarism in the mainframe in the original film, evolved and betrayed his allies, becoming the corrupt ruler of the Grid and closing the portal, trapping Kevin. In Legacy, Clu was essentially what would be done with Princess Leia in Rogue One, a different actor, John Reardon was the body double for digital makeup from Bridges’s younger likeness with the latter’s voiceover. It was a highly-touted technique in showing how much had advanced in the nearly 30 years since the original film, which was already well-regarded for being one of the first films ever with extensive use of CGI. Kevin sacrificed himself to supposedly take Clu down with him, so someone seems to have survived that.
When confirming such in a recent appearance on the podcast Film Comment, he didn’t even say one way or the other (or a third way) what role he’s playing, saying, “I’m heading off this Saturday to play a part in the third installment of the Tron story. Jared Leto is the star of this third one. I’m really anxious to work with him; I’ve admired his work.” It’s unclear how big of a role it will be, as it’s already over three months into production in Vancouver. Leto is Ares, the manifestation of a newly-sentient program that crosses over into the human world that is completely unprepared. The film also stars Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Gillian Anderson, Arturo Castro, Hasan Minhaj, Cameron Monaghan, and Sarah Desjardins.
Tron: Ares is directed by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil director Joachim Rønning, from a script by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne. Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver, Justin Springer, Leto, Emma Ludbrook and Steven Lisberger produce alongside executive producer Russell Allen. It is currently set for release on October 10, 2025. It was originally set to open alongside Paramount and Nickelodeon’s Aang: The Last Airbender, before the latter moved to January 2026.
Source: Deadline