Tron has always fought against the odds. For decades, Tron has remained a relatively niche franchise, with a dedicated cult following. Despite the original film being a financial failure, Disney greenlit Tron: Legacy 28 years after the release of the first. However, Legacy was yet another financial disappointment, and a direct sequel was scrapped. Now, 15 years later, Disney is giving Tron another shot with Tron: Ares.
Tron: Ares releases October 10th in theaters everywhere and is the latest installment in the Tron franchise. However, since it is the third film in the series, it pulls from the complex lore established throughout the trilogy.
Since the franchise has so many moving parts, it may be somewhat complicated for newcomers to understand. In this overview of the Tron franchise, we will revisit the original films, unpack their lore, and see if they still hold up today.
The original classic
Tron (1982) was the first film in the franchise, introducing us to the general aesthetic and lore behind the Tron universe. Utilizing revolutionary special effects like backlit animation and computer-generated animation, Tron had a massive budget for the time. Unfortunately, the film bombed at the box office. Today, Tron is a cult classic.
Tron follows Kevin Flynn, a software developer and former ENCOM employee. Flynn was fired by developer-turned-senior-executive Ed Dillinger, who plagiarized several of Flynn’s video games. Flynn hacks into ENCOM’s system to prove Dillinger’s plagiarism. However, ENCOM’s security program MCP stops him. MCP is the primary antagonist of the film, an AI that expanded beyond its original programming. Flynn and two other employees want to utilize a program called Tron to take down Dillinger. However, after the group breaks into ENCOM, Flynn is shot by MCP with a laser and disappears.
Flynn is transported to The Grid, a cyber world ruled by MCP where computer programs are their own beings. Here, Flynn competes in games against programs and befriends Ram, as well as Tron himself. The three compete in a Light Cycle battle, wherein programs use bikes that dispel dangerous light in an attempt to destroy one another. However, the trio escapes, and Flynn and Tron try to take down MCP and its right-hand man Sark, eventually destroying them. After this, Dillinger’s secret is revealed to the public, and Kevin Flynn becomes the CEO of ENCOM.
A new legacy
Following up the 1982 classic, Tron: Legacy released a whopping 28 years after the original. It essentially rebooted the franchise in the public eye. Legacy is a direct follow up to the original, with Jeff Bridges reprising his role as Kevin Flynn. Similarly to the original, Tron: Legacy was revolutionary for its special effects, primarily its digital de-aging effects used on Jeff Bridges.
Tron: Legacy follows Kevin Flynn’s son Sam. After the events of the first movie, Kevin Flynn mysteriously vanishes without a trace. After 20 years, Sam revisits his father’s old arcade. He discovers a secret room behind an old arcade machine and gets sucked into The Grid. There, he competes in games and faces off against a mysterious program called The Rinzler. However, he is recognized as a user, and is taken away to Clu, a malicious program who looks exactly like his father did twenty years ago.
During a Light Cycle battle between the two, a woman named Quorra rescues Sam and brings him to his father. Kevin explains what happened. Kevin created Clu to assist him and Tron with making The Grid a perfect system. However, Clu became malicious after Flynn discovered programs that were not created by anyone, dubbed ISOs. Clu saw these beings as an imperfection in the perfect system, so he betrayed Flynn. He killed Tron and tried to wipe out all ISOs. However, one survived: Quorra. The portal to the human world closed, leaving Flynn trapped. Clu’s goal is to escape into the real world and make it “perfect” in his own design.
However, as it turns out, Clu did not kill Tron. Instead, he simply reprogrammed him into a new program dubbed The Rinzler. However, during an intense dogfight, Tron breaks free from his programming and sacrifices himself in an attempt to stop Clu. Then Kevin Flynn sacrifices himself to stop Clu before Sam and Quorra escape to the real world.
Understanding Tron‘s legacy
The Tron movies are a mixed bag of quality, and their critical and commercial reception seem to support that. Despite this, however, Tron and Tron: Legacy have gained cult classic status. Both films gained appeal for their special effects work, as both movies were innovative at the time. Tron: Legacy has become especially popular online due to its aesthetic, worldbuilding, general nostalgia and its soundtrack by Daft Punk.
The original Tron personally underwhelmed me with its story, but I found the worldbuilding and style excellent. The plot is very confusing, so the movie was often unengaging and uninteresting. What the movie lacks in a solid plot, however, is rectified with its visual style and special effects work. Although many would call the computer generated and backlit animation dated, I feel like it still holds up today. Tron is absolutely a must watch for the rest of the series, as it sets up pretty much everything in the franchise.
Tron: Legacy, however, blows the original out of the water. Although its visual style is not as interesting, it redefined the franchise visually, and the soundtrack completely sells the aesthetic. Legacy is far more engaging on a plot level, delivering interesting characters and fleshing out the universe. Tron: Legacy is a fantastic blockbuster that earned its cult classic status.
Tron also has a surplus of content outside the main films, including video games, a Disney World ride, and Tron: Uprising, a critically acclaimed television show. However, understanding those projects is not required for Ares. Both movies are worth watching, but in my opinion, Legacy is far better in most aspects. However, despite their quality, you should absolutely watch both films before Tron: Ares.
Enter: Ares
Tron: Ares is set to release October 10 in theaters everywhere. Directed by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales director Joachim Rønning, the movie stars Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Greta Lee, and Jodie Turner-Smith. The movie also features a soundtrack composed by Nine Inch Nails, a departure from Daft Punk’s beloved work on Legacy.
Ares was originally conceived as a direct sequel to Tron Legacy; however, the idea was scrapped in favor of a soft reboot telling its own story. Despite this, Jeff Bridges will still reprise his role of Kevin Flynn in Ares. Ares will release a whopping 15 years after Legacy.
Although we do not have the full plot available to us, we know that the new movie follows Ares (Jared Leto), a powerful program created by Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), Ed Dillinger’s grandson. Somehow, Ares and other programs from The Grid enter our world, wreaking havoc. In the trailers, we also see Ares meet Kevin Flynn in the original Grid from the 1982 film.
Cracking the code
Tron: Ares is seemingly a soft reboot for the franchise, telling its own original story with a new protagonist. However, make no mistake: Ares seemingly connects with the storyline set up by the prior films.
Tron: Ares does abandon some plot points from Legacy. It has been confirmed that Sam and Quorra will not return. Ed Dillinger Jr, a teased villain played by Cillian Murphy, will also not be returning from Legacy. However, his son, Julian Dillinger, will be introduced instead. According to the director, Kevin Flynn is the only character that will be returning from the previous movies.
However, Ares maintains the continuity that the franchise has previously set up. Ares will revisit the Grid from the 1982 film and meet Kevin Flynn. At this time, we do not know yet how Flynn survived his heroic sacrifice in Legacy. We also know that the ENCOM will return, but Dillinger Systems appears to now be a separate entity.
Although we do not know much about Tron: Ares, it’s clear that it will shape the directory of the franchise. Whether this is the last Tron film or the start of a cultural resurgence, one can only hope that Tron stays true to its legacy.
Pam Mac-Tojza
October 1, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Insightful, great review!