Tron: Ares is continuing a long-running franchise tradition with its latest poster. The upcoming Jared Leto-led blockbuster will revive the beloved sci-fi franchise, marking the first new movie in the series in 15 years. The digital Disney-owned canon is steeped in tradition, honoring those who have come before in each subsequent adventure in new and unique ways.
Tron: Ares is joining the trend of tipping its hat to the past with a new poster. The new piece of movie marketing continues a tradition dating back to the original Tron, released in 1982. Released online one week before the movie's official theatrical debut, the new poster shows Leto's fearless rogue program, Ares, standing in a beam of light (which often signifies leaving or entering the digital world) with one of the franchise's iconic data disks floating above him.
This harkens back to the original Tron poster, which saw Jeff Bridges' Kevin Flynn standing in almost the same position.
2010's Tron: Legacy also offered its own take on the epochal poster during its run-up to release. This time, instead of Jeff Bridges, the poster featured stars Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde.
The nods to the past do not stop there for Tron: Ares. The poster also features Bridges himself as its franchise figurehead, marking the first time he has appeared on one of these 'basking in light' posters since the first film.
Tron: Ares takes place 15 years after the events of Tron: Legacy, continuing the epic tale of Kevin Flynn and his digital world known as The Grid (read more about the Tron franchise timeline here). While the other two Tron films featured humans from the real world entering the franchise's digital domain, Ares will center on a conflict going the other way, as one of The Grid's programs comes to the human world. Tron: Ares comes to theaters on Friday, October 10, led by Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, and Jeff Bridges.
How Else Will Tron: Ares Honor the Rest of the Franchise?
Tron is a bit of an oddball when it comes to franchise entertainment. Despite having only three films and a handful of supplementary content (i.e., TV shows and video games), its lore is extensive.
Luckily, Tron: Ares seemed to be steeped in that lore, coating itself in the minutiae of the greater Tron brand.
Of course, this will most prominently be displayed in the return of series mainstay Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn. Bridges' Flynn is essentially the quote/unquote god of the Tron universe, the great savior and creator of its digital world.
Shortly after the events of the first Tron movie, Flynn lived in the digital world, vowing never to return to his human domain. In the upcoming new film, he will seemingly see Jared Leto's program, Ares, off, blending the physical and digital worlds unlike ever before.
Outside of Bridges, it is unclear whether other returning names from the franchise's past will return for the 2025 Disney threequel.
One name that has kept coming up in conversations surrounding the movie is Tron: Legacy protagonist Sam Flynn (played by Garrett Hedlund). Sam is the heir to the Flynn empire, and, after reuniting with his father in his 2010 film, seems to have stepped up to follow in his father's footsteps to take charge of his family's real-world tech giant.
Given the Flynn family's connection to the franchise overall, it would be surprising if Sam was not at least referenced in Ares. However, Hedlund has repeatedly made it clear he is not in the movie, with reports suggesting that he (along with his Tron: Legacy co-star Olivia Wilde) refused to come back.
Fans will have to wait and see whether all this was a complicated plot to keep Hedlund's return a secret or if he, in fact, has nothing to do with the movie.
