TRON: Ares, the highly anticipated third installment in the groundbreaking\u00a0TRON\u00a0franchise, is set to reach theatres\u00a0on October 10th \u2013 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. <\/p>\n
The film was directed by Maleficent: Mistress of Evil\u00a0and\u00a0Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales\u00a0director Joachim R\u00f8nning\u00a0and stars Jared Leto<\/a> (Morbius), Cameron Monaghan (Gotham), Evan Peters (Dahmer \u2013 Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), Greta Lee (Past Lives), Sarah Desjardins (Yellowjackets), Gillian Anderson<\/a> (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.<\/p>\n Scripted by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne,\u00a0TRON: Ares tells the story of\u00a0a highly sophisticated Program, Ares, who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind\u2019s first encounter with A.I. beings.\u00a0Leto is playing Ares. As Deadline put it, Ares is \u201ca fictional character who crosses over from the world of videogames to planet Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n For twenty-eight years, director Steven Lisberger\u2019s\u00a0cult classic TRON\u00a0was a standalone sci-fi adventure. Then in 2010 Joseph Kosinski took fans back to the world of\u00a0TRON with the film TRON: Legacy\u00a0\u2013 and since then things have been a bit messy. Kosinski wanted to make a third TRON\u00a0film, to be called\u00a0TRON: Ascension, but Disney cancelled the project when their movie\u00a0Tomorrowland\u00a0underperformed. Apparently the script for\u00a0TRON: Ascension\u00a0would have featured a character named Ares\u2026 and somehow the idea for that character has evolved into\u00a0TRON: Ares. Kosinski had said that he had nearly given Leto a cameo in\u00a0TRON: Legacy, in the End of Line club where Lisberger did make a cameo. The TRON: Ares rumblings started around 2017, but it didn\u2019t go into production until 2024.<\/p>\n JoBlo\u2019s 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, \u201cIt\u2019s so cool man! It\u2019s such a fun world to be a part of and AI is on everyone\u2019s minds these days. The Grid abides!\u201d Steven Lisberger: \u201cAs far out as TRON originally was, it became real life. We need to kick this technology around artistically before it kicks us around. That\u2019s what TRON\u2019s all about. That, and Bridges\u2019s courageous acting. He has been a gift to TRON since day one.\u201d Lisberger is happy if TRON inspired others \u2013 like The Matrix. Smith noted they didn\u2019t nominate TRON for VFX at the Oscars because using computers was considered cheating. Lisberger says it wasn\u2019t that they were early, it\u2019s that everyone else is late.<\/p>\n Jared Leto was the one who pushed for another movie. He says he\u2019s 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\u2019t want to disrespect him. Leto also said he blew the first scene they shot together because he couldn\u2019t stop smiling. Bridges said him and Leto got along because they are both \u201cmusic cats\u201d and says for Leto acting is like a thing on the side.<\/p>\n Greta Lee says she\u2019s in TRON just because she wanted to ride a light cycle. She had never been to Comic-Con before and said it wasn\u2019t what she expected. She said that, for some reason, she thought everyone would be wearing masks. She\u2019s crazy excited to be in a movie like this and said the movie will play to both the superfans and people who don\u2019t know anything about TRON.<\/p>\n A clip was show in which Athena, Jodie Turner Smith\u2019s character, enters the world to retrieve code for Lee\u2019s character Eve. The music is awesome, very Nine Inch Nails but done on old school synths so it sounds like Wendy Carlos\u2019s 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\u2019s lightcycle, but that\u2019s where the clip ends<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Evan Peters seemed to have no idea how to answer any questions, and Smith jokingly called him \u201cDahmer quiet.\u201d Gillian Anderson said she\u2019s done Hall H before a few times and it seemed bigger back then. Cameron Monaghan says seeing the sets \u2013 which were practical \u2013 absolutely blew his mind. They actually built pieces of the Grid.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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 \u2013 more of a dystopia with red lighting. Ares is red, but Greta Lee\u2019s character is Blue. More NIN \u2013 the score also has vocals by Reznor so it really is a Nine Inch Nails soundtrack, not just Reznor\/ Ross. Very cool looking movie.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t 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 \u201cAs Alive As You Need Me To Be,\u201d which is now available to download.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n