Belated second sequel TRON: Ares is finally shooting, and it’s been announced that Gillian Anderson has joined the already starry cast.
Because it’s important not to rush these things, Disney has waited well over a decade to make a sequel to 2010’s TRON: Legacy. That film was itself a sequel to TRON, released in the dim-and-distant year of 1982.
Finally, though, filming appears to have gotten away over the past couple of days, with director Joachim Ronning (Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) posting a teasing image of a TRON 3 chair on the 20th January. It’s the sort of thing filmmakers often do when a film goes into production (Fede Alvarez posted a picture of a facehugger clutching a clapperboard last year as Alien: Romulus got underway, for example).
Now, Deadline reports that Gillian Anderson has joined the already starry cast, which includes Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith and Greta Lee. There’s no mention of what role Anderson is taking on or how major her presence will be, but then again, plot details are hard to come by in general – Deadline writes that Leto will play Ares, “a fictional character who crosses over from the world of videogames to planet Earth.”
Nor is it clear how TRON: Ares’ events will tie into the plot of TRON: Legacy; that 2010 film was a direct continuation of the original TRON, right down to Jeff Bridges reprising his role as Kevin Flynn. TRON: Legacy also left threads open for a sequel, not least with the presence of an uncredited Cillian Murphy as ENCOM boss Edward Dillinger Jr – a character who presumably would have returned as a villain in the next film.
To date, none of the central cast from TRON: Legacy appear to be returning for the sequel – Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen, Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner are all conspicuously absent so far. With that film’s director, Joseph Kosinski, also out of the picture – he went off and did a little film called Top Gun: Maverick instead – it’s possible that TRON: Ares is a reboot of sorts.
As we’ve previously said, the post-production on something as effects-heavy as a TRON film will likely mean its release is a year away at least, so it’ll likely be some time until more concrete details emerge. We’ll bring you more as it comes in.
