"Tron: Ares" Trailer: First Look at Jared Leto in New Installment of the Iconic Sci-Fi Franchise with Jeff Bridges

The iconic franchise returns with a new twist: this time, a computer program enters the human world, starring Jared Leto and Jeff Bridges in a visually stunning continuation of the Tron legacy.

The Tron franchise is a tricky one to figure out. It all began with Steven Lisberger’s 1982 film, which introduced Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer and video game developer who accidentally gets zapped into one of his own video game programs. There, he becomes a savior of sorts, fighting alongside Tron, a computer-coded warrior, to liberate the mainframe from the evil clutches of the Master Control Program.

The movie was groundbreaking, featuring light-cycle battles, glowing frisbee-like throwing weapons, and some cool special effects that involved a backlit process to make everything glow, just like a video game. It also boasted some of the earliest uses of computer-generated imagery in film, which was a huge deal at the time. The result? A visual spectacle that was unlike anything audiences had seen before—and it quickly became a cult classic.

And for the generation raised on coin-operated arcade games, video game consoles like Atari and Nintendo, and early home computers like the Commodore 64, Tron was the movie you watched repeatedly, and fantasized about how much you wanted to be zapped into this funky digital world just as Kevin Flynn did. Oh, to ride a light-cycle for just one spin around the grid… now that would be something.

But the thing that makes Tron tricky to figure out is that the original film was never as popular as other '80s sci-fi movies. It was a genuine cult classic—not adored by the masses, but certainly loved by a loyal fanbase that slowly began to grow over the decades. Despite not achieving mainstream success initially, Tron had a lasting impact on pop culture. One could even say it was the precursor to something like The Matrix franchise, with its themes of dual realities, a virtual one and a physical one.

The growing love for Tron eventually led to the 2010 sequel, Tron: Legacy, which all began with a secretly made proof-of-concept teaser famously revealed at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con. The audience went absolutely wild, with attendees going berserk at the footage, sparking massive anticipation for a sequel that no one thought was even possible. The excitement surrounding the preliminary footage proved just how strong the Tron fanbase had become.

Sadly, Tron: Legacy didn’t light up the box office as much as the studio had hoped. While it was certainly a respectable hit, it didn’t achieve the kind of massive financial success that was expected. Today, the film is more remembered for its groundbreaking soundtrack, composed by the iconic electronic duo Daft Punk.

So, that was that. Despite a short-lived animated series called Tron: Uprising that aired in 2012 on Disney XD, along with a few interactive video games and spin-off comic books, the Tron franchise was considered to have run its course. —“End of line.”

But lo and behold, 15 years after the release of Tron: Legacy, the franchise comes roaring back with a new standalone sequel called Tron: Ares. Wow, it’s truly a cult film franchise that just doesn’t want to quit. Like drinking from a river of liquid energy, the world of Tron has been regenerated for one more shot, proving that the grid has much more to offer.

Set to open in theaters later this year in October, Disney is kicking off the promotional campaign for Tron: Ares, releasing the very first trailer today. Fresh from its recent debut at CinemaCon, the trailer gives the first look at the upcoming sci-fi spectacle, where things are being flipped: instead of a human video game programmer getting transported into the digital world, we’ll see a video game computer program leaping into the human world for the first time. That also means light-cycles and recognizer ships will be breaking through and invading the city. —“Oh, my user!”

Oscar-winner Jared Leto stars as the titular Ares, a highly sophisticated program sent to the real world on a dangerous mission to look for “something — something he does not understand.” Or at least, not yet.

Jeff Bridges is also expected to return, reprising his iconic role as Kevin Flynn. Bridges joined Leto on the stage at CinemaCon when the trailer was revealed for the first time.

Also starring Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Cameron Monaghan, Sarah Desjardins, Gillian Anderson, Hasan Minhaj, and Arturo Castro, Tron: Ares is directed by Norwegian helmer Joachim Rønning, who recently directed Daisy Ridley in the long-distance swimmer biopic Young Woman and the Sea.

Rønning is also known for directing Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and co-directed with his former directing partner Espen Sandberg Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and the Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki.

Written by Jesse Wigutow (Daredevil: Born Again) and Jack Thorne (Netflix’s Adolescence, HBO’s His Dark Materials), the film will feature an original score by Nine Inch Nails, marking the first time Oscar-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will work under their band’s name for a film score.

Tron: Ares will be hitting theaters on October 10th.