At a time when Tron’s concepts of immersive video game experiences and life-like computer programs are more relevant and plausible than ever, a new chapter in the franchise is on its way with Tron: Ares. Of course, fans of the original sci-fi movie classic from 1982 and its 2010 follow-up, Tron: Legacy, should know that this new threequel has been on its way for quite some time.
Luckily, Tron: Ares is no longer a sequel we are still waiting for (or at least one we do not have to wait much longer for). Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about the upcoming Disney movie here.
What Is The Tron: Ares Release Date?
Tron: Ares will hit theaters Friday, October 10, 2025, including IMAX screens. The upcoming 2025 movie release is occurring a decade and a half after reports of a Tron 3 began circling even before Tron: Legacy had opened. Further updates to its development, however, would be quite infrequent and barely resemble the announced plot details.
What Tron: Ares Is About
The original Tron is an example of a movie in which the title character is not the main character. The title refers to a computer program that gains sentience and takes on the likeness of its creator, Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner), while the story actually follows Jeff Bridges Kevin Flynn. However, that is apparently not going to be the case with Tron: Ares.
According to the film’s official logline, Ares is the name of an artificial intelligence that becomes the first to make direct, first-hand contact with mankind when it is sent to the real world on an important assignment. That means that this will apparently be the first film in the Tron franchise in which most of the action takes place outside of the digital realm.
Jared Leto Leads The Tron: Ares Cast
Like its two predecessors, Tron: Ares features a star-studded ensemble of newcomers to the franchise, with one important exception. See who is returning and who is new to the Tron: Ares cast in the following rundown.
Jared Leto (Ares)
Leading the Tron: Ares cast as the eponymous computer program is Jared Leto, who last worked with Disney when he voiced the Hatbox Ghost in 2023’s Haunted Mansion cast and also has plenty of big-budget blockbusters under his belt, such as Blade Runner 2049, Morbius, and two DC movies (Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s Justice League) as The Joker. The Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman is also known for his acclaimed performances in the criminally short TV show, My So-Called Life (his big break), Requiem for a Dream, and Dallas Buyers Club, for which he earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
Greta Lee
Also starring in the Tron: Ares cast is Greta Lee in a currently undisclosed role but, probably, her biggest role to date, despite briefly lending her voice to big movies like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Strays. She is better known for starring in two of the best A24 movies of 2023 (Past Lives and Problemista) and her Emmy-nominated performance in Apple TV+’s The Morning Show.
Evan Peters
Evan Peters has had his fair share of big-budget, action-packed blockbusters, most notably his portrayal of (technically) two different iterations of Quicksilver in Fox’s X-Men movies and in the Disney+’s MCU miniseries, WandaVision. He is even better known from the small screen, especially as one of the most frequent American Horror Story actors, for his Emmy-winning performance in HBO’s Mare of Easttown, and his Emmy-nominated portrayal of one of the most notorious serial killers in Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.
Hasan Minhaj
Jared Leto’s Haunted Mansion co-star Hasan Minhaj also has a role in the Tron: Ares cast, which is easily one of the biggest projects the former Daily Show correspondent and Patriot Act host has been a part of. The comedian (known for his great Netflix original stand-up specials Homecoming King and The King’s Jester) has also been in two Kate McKinnon movies (Rough Night and The Spy Who Dumped Me), a Jennifer Lawrence-led 2023 comedy called No Hard Feelings, and a 2024 ensemble drama called It Ends With Us.
Jodie Turner-Smith
Already well-versed in sci-fi and action-packed spectacle is Jodie Turner-Smith, as she starred in the futuristic A24 drama After Yang, appeared in Amazon Prime’s Jack Ryan adaptation Without Remorse, and joined the Star Wars Universe as a member of the Acolyte cast. The English actor is also known for TNT’s The Last Ship, 2019’s Queen & Slim, the title role of Amazon Prime’s historical drama Anne Boleyn, Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey.
Arturo Castro
Comedian Arturo Castro had a funny, spoiler-free way of hyping up Tron: Ares when speaking to ET in March 2024. You may recognize the Guatemalan actor from Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Comedy Central’s Broad City, or the modern horror-comedy movie classic, The Menu.
Cameron Monaghan
Already at low-key Geek God status is Cameron Monaghan, particularly for playing Cal Kestis in the video game Star Wars: Fallen Order and starring in the Gotham cast as Jerome Valeska, who would be counted as one of the best Joker portrayals if he actually was the Clown Prince of Crime. The actor is also famous for playing Ian Gallagher on Showtime's Shameless, 2014’s feature-length adaptation of Vampire Academy, and movie based on The Giver from the same year.
Gillian Anderson
Long before engaging in a tech-based form of sci-fi storytelling with Tron: Ares, Gillian Anderson became something of a Scream Queen by investigating paranormal crimes as FBI Agent Dana Scully on one of the all-time best sci-fi TV shows, The X-Files. The two-time Emmy winner has since played various historical figures – such as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on The Crown Season 4 and Eleanor Roosevelt in Showtime’s The First Lady cast – and Jean Milhurn in Netflix’s Sex Education cast.
Jeff Bridges (Kevin Flynn)
The only known veteran from the original Tron cast returning for Tron: Ares is Cameron Monaghan’s The Giver co-star, Jeff Bridges, as Kevin Flynn and not a digital, de-aged version of himself like in Tron: Legacy. Other iconic roles the Academy Award winner (for 2009’s Crazy Heart) has played include The Dude in the cult classic stoner comedy, The Big Lebowski, the title role of Jon Carpenter’s Starman, and Rooster Cogburn in Joel and Ethan Coen’s acclaimed remake of one of the best Western movies, True Grit.
Joachim Rønning Directs Tron: Ares
Following in the footsteps of Steven Lisberger and Joseph Kosinski to helm Tron: Ares is Joachim Rønning, who previously worked with Disney as the director of the fifth Pirates of the Caribbean movie (2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales), Maleficent: Mistress of Evil in 2019, and 2024’s Young Woman and the Sea, most recently. The Norwegian filmmaker is also known for the 2006 action-comedy Bandidas, 2008’s Max Manus: Man of War, Kon-Tiki from 2012, and two episodes of Netflix’s Marco Polo.
Handling the screenplay is 1995’s It Runs in the Family scribe Jesse Wigutow, from a story he crafted with Jack Thorne, who developed His Dark Materials for HBO and penned the Enola Holmes movies. Tron: Ares is executive produced by Russell Allen along with producers Sean Bailey, Jeffrey Silver, Justin Springer, originally Tron co-creator Steven Lisberger, and star Jared Leto.
Nine Inch Nails Is Scoring Tron: Ares
Music has always been an important element of the Tron movies, such as when Daft Punk made Tron: Legacy better with their Grammy-nominated soundtrack. Of course, the French electronic duo has since broken up, leaving room for another iconic duo to compose Tron: Ares – Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor.
This will be the first time the musicians are scoring a film under the name Nine Inch Nails, which is the industrial rock outfit Reznor formed in the late 1980s. They are previously known for composing some of David Fincher’s best movies (including their Oscar-winning score for 2010’s The Social Network) and would win their second Oscar, alongside Jon Batiste for Pixar’s Soul.
Fourteen years after talk of the threequel first surfaced, we can say that the principal photography for Tron: Ares is in the can. Joachim Rønning shared on Instagram that he had wrapped production in Spring 2024.
How To Watch The Previous Tron Movies
With Tron: Ares a year away, it looks like audiences have plenty of time to revisit (or discover) the original classic and its first sequel, which are both available to stream with a Disney+ subscription. You can also use one of the best streaming platforms to subscribe to for checking out Disney XD’s original animated series, Tron: Uprising, which tells a new story from within The Grid.
How to watch the Tron movies and Tron: Uprising
According to Greek mythology, “Ares” is the god of war or courage. We shall see if Jared Leto’s eponymous character stands for the former or the latter when Tron: Ares hits the big screen.
