Disney is set to revisit the Grid with Tron: Ares. However, the current SAG-AFTRA strike has put production, which was supposed to start in August, on hold. In the meantime, Disney’s animation division is also toying with the idea of making its own Tron movie.
While speaking with Collider for the studio’s upcoming feature film Wish, Disney Animation CCO Jennifer Lee revealed that she has monthly lunches with her team at the studio where they all exchange ideas for what projects they could look into developing next. Lee says she would bring up Tron as a potential prospect, and would offer it to any director keen to make it a reality.
You know, here’s what you can say back to him, that I will promise to do at my next directors’ lunch. Once a month, I just have lunch with all the directors together, and I’m gonna say, “There has been a request. Is there anyone here, who has been dreaming of that to happen?” We’re filmmaker driven, so then I can blame them, if it doesn’t happen. No, I’m teasing. Just tell him that I’m gonna write that down and bring that to them. Unfairly, I haven’t done that yet, so I will. I love that.
Jennifer Lee
Tron: Ares has an ensemble cast featuring Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Cameron Monaghan, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Sarah Desjardins. Detailed character descriptions can be found in the source material.
Tron: Ares has been characterized as a follow-up to the 2010 film Tron: Legacy. However, it remains uncertain whether key figures from the franchise such as Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde, and Garrett Hedlund will reprise their roles. Disney has already been to the Grid in animated form with their Disney XD series Tron: Uprising.
While the preceding two Tron films were primarily set within the digital realm of computers and programs, the screenplay for Ares, penned by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne, shifts its focus towards the emergence of a sentient program that crosses into the unprepared human world. The film is expected to explore the real world more extensively.
Leto, who has been attached to the project for several years, portrays Ares, the embodiment of the program, while Lee takes on the role of a video game programmer and CEO of a tech company who finds herself on the run, safeguarding her groundbreaking technology.
