As fans prepare to head back to The Grid in Tron: Ares, Disney confirmed the official three-movie timeline for the Tron franchise. After 15 years since the last Tron movie, the cult-hut franchise is returning to theaters this October, unveiling another new chapter in this Jeff Bridges-led digital odyssey.
In a new interview, Tron: Ares producer Justin Springer addressed where the new movie lands in the franchise's official timeline, revealing the upcoming threequel, which stars Greta Lee and Jared Leto alongside Bridges as the returning Flynn, will take place 14 years after the events of the last Tron movie (Tron: Legacy). Speaking with GamesRadar+, Springer posited, "We're telling a story that's 14 years later:"
"We're telling a story that's 14 years later, and the most important thing is that we tell this new story in a way that works. To just throw cameos in, where it's a parade of people that we love from this franchise, I just feel like it's fan service that doesn't serve the story. But we are definitely focused on ways to surprise the audience."
Because of this significant gap between films, Springer and the Tron 3 team have been deliberate when it comes to what corners of the Tron mythology they touch and which they don't:
"If we don't touch something in this movie, I always think about where else we can play. I produced the animated series [Tron: Uprising] and I worked on the theme park rides. There are all sorts of different ways to keep the mythology alive, whether that be in a film or a series or whatever, if we're so lucky."
Ares marks the most recent project on the Tron franchise timeline, joining not just the two other Tron movies but the beloved Tron: Uprising series, several Tron video games, and a 2010 short film.
See the complete Tron franchise chronology below:
- Tron
- Tron Uprising
- Tron: Evolution
- Tron: The Next Day
- Tron Legacy
- Tron: Identity
- Tron: Ares
Tron: Ares ushers audiences back into the acclaimed Tron franchise, this time bringing the digital world to the real one in an epic battle unlike anything humanity has ever seen. The upcoming threequel follows a highly sophisticated program named Ares (played by Jared Leto), who is sent into the real world, forcing humans to reckon with their first interaction with a fully AI being. Leto leads the new movie, which also stars Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Jeff Bridges. Ares comes to theaters on Friday, October 10, and it features brand-new music from the beloved alt-rock group Nine Inch Nails.
The Full Tron Franchise Explained
Tron
The original 1982 movie Tron started the Tron franchise. It told the story of arcade owner and gifted programmer Kevin Flynn (played by Iron Man actor Jeff Bridges). The movie followed Flynn as he took on the villainous executives at his former employer, ENCOM, and was sent to the digital realm known as The Grid for the first time.
Arriving at the dawn of personal computing, the original Tron started the trend of Tron movies being contemporary to the time they are released, addressing the real-world technological questions of the time.
Tron ends in 1983 when Flynn takes control of ENCOM and The Grid. In crafting the digital world to his liking, he goes all-in on his work, missing key moments in his personal life (something that will come back to bite him in the next film).
Tron: Uprising
Tron: Uprising pushed the Tron franchise forward about 10 years, bringing the series into the 1990s. Released on Disney XD in 2012, the hit animated series followed a digital revolution on The Grid.
Led by Elijah Wood's Beck, Uprising saw the plucky young program take on the dastardly Clu (a recreation of ENCOM's evil program from the first film). This resulted in the series lead assuming Tron's persona and becoming a revolutionary figure among his fellow programs.
He eventually brings the real Tron (a security program who helped Flynn in the original film) out of hiding and leads the resistance against Clu in the digital Argon City.
Tron: Evolution
Released as a prequel to 2010's Tron: Legacy movie, Tron: Evolution told the story of how Jeff Bridges' Kevin Flynn came to be imprisoned in The Grid, as fans find him in the Joseph Kosinski-directed big-screen sequel.
The 2010 video game takes place around the same time as Tron: Uprising, although its exact timeline placement has not been specified. We all know that Flynn went missing sometime in the early to mid-1990s, and Evolution covers that story.
Players take control of a new program known as Anon, who is helping Flynn investigate a potential program-ending conspiracy inside The Grid. This culminates in Anon being decompiled by the villainous Clu, with Flynn and his new companion, Quorra, going into hiding as outcasts of the digital realm.
Tron: The Next Day
Tron: The Next Day was another piece of supplemental material meant to recount the events between the original Tron film and 2010's Tron: Legacy.
Released as a part of Legacy's 2011 physical release, the 10-minute short follows the history of the Flynn Lives movement, which started after Jeff Bridges' renowned programmer mysteriously went missing in the 1990s.
This includes brief interludes throughout the '90s, ending in 2009, with Flynn's son, Sam Flynn, restarting Flynn Lives and officially kicking off his hunt for his father—a quest that takes him to The Grid for the first time in Tron: Legacy.
Tron: Legacy
Like the original Tron, Tron: Legacy is contemporaneous with its release year, 2010.
The Joseph Kosinski-directed blockbuster took fans back to The Grid, telling the tale of Kevin Flynn's estranged son, Sam Flynn (played by Garrett Hedlund), who receives a mysterious message from his long-lost father. Searching for his dad, Sam travels to the digital world and uncovers the secret of why his father went missing all those years ago.
This adventure includes another epic battle with the terrifying Clu. Kevin eventually sacrifices himself and takes down Clu. The movie concludes with Sam returning to the real world with his father's digital companion, Quorra, backing up/deactivating The Grid.
Tron: Identity
Despite Sam Flynn's best efforts in Tron: Legacy, The Grid could only stay locked away for so long. The iconic digital frontier returned in the 2023 video game Tron: Identity.
Identity takes place in 2023 on what is known as The New Grid (or Arq Grid), a recreation of Kevin Flynn's digital world, free of user intervention.
The game follows a detective program named Query, tasked with investigating a break-in at the information center known as the Repository.
Tron: Ares
Then, we come to the most up-to-date project on the Tron franchise. Tron: Ares marks the third film in the long-running series (and one of 2025's biggest movie sequels), blending the lines between the digital and physical worlds like never before.
The new movie tells the tale of a program, Ares (Jared Leto), who comes to the real world on a mission and starts a war between programs and humanity. The movie is assumed to take place in 2025 (the year it will be released) and address modern-day concerns like AI, the over-encroachment of tech on everyday life, and the ethics surrounding technological autonomy.
Jeff Bridges' Kevin Flynn will return in the sequel, rising from the dead for one last fight for The Grid.
