'I Don't Know the World Cares About Those Characters the Same Way They Would a Darth Vader or a Skywalker' — Tron: Ares Writer Reveals Why the Light Cycles Had to Ditch The Grid for City Streets

Jesse Wigutow, writer of the upcoming Tron: Ares, has discussed however Disney acceptable astir creating a sequel to its other long-running sci-fi franchise — without being capable to trust connected characters that are household names, specified arsenic Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.

Speaking to IGN, Wigutow said that creating the conception for a caller Tron movie had taken immoderate time, arsenic the movie revives the franchise for the large surface a afloat 15 years aft the motorboat of 2010's Tron: Legacy, and acts arsenic thing of a brushed reboot. However, Wigutow said Tron had remained successful the nationalist consciousness passim this clip — adjacent if audiences whitethorn lone retrieve its sci-fi aesthetic and flashy Light Cycle races.

"Tron is absorbing due to the fact that the expectations are not rather arsenic obvious, I think, arsenic immoderate different franchises," Wigutow said. "So you commencement a small spot by saying, 'What's an absorbing mode in? What is simply a communicative we privation to tell, that needs to beryllium told? What are the expectations? What is an assemblage hoping to spot successful different iteration of Tron?' And I deliberation successful a truly crude mode what we came down to was, successful the broadest imaginable way, the aesthetics of Tron are what lives connected successful the zeitgeist.

"There is simply a hardcore fanbase that truly cares astir the mythology and the characters that were carried into Legacy and retired of Legacy," Wigutow acknowledged. "But I don't cognize that the satellite cares astir those characters successful the aforesaid mode they would astir a Darth Vader oregon a Skywalker. So honestly, it was truly about, well, what is simply a crushed to archer the communicative today? And past however bash we bring the aesthetics of Tron, the airy lines, the Light Cycles, the things that truly unrecorded connected successful the world, successful the Shanghai Disney taxable park, for a communicative that tin transportation those ideas into the adjacent generation?"

Set successful the adjacent future, Tron: Ares marks a departure from erstwhile Tron films arsenic it brings the franchises' integer aesthetic into the existent world. The movie stars Jared Leto arsenic Ares and Jodie Turner-Smith arsenic Athena, combat programs designed to beryllium the cleanable AI-powered soldiers, that tin beryllium deployed extracurricular of Tron's machine grid and into real-world wars. But, arsenic you'd expect, things don't spell rather to program with this idea.

Originally planned arsenic a nonstop sequel to Tron: Legacy, Tron: Ares was delayed and yet retooled arsenic thing that tin basal connected its ain implicit the people of the past decade. Discussing however the gait of exertion — and successful peculiar the maturation of AI — had accelerated implicit this time, Wigutow noted that those moving connected the task had ended up seeing immoderate of its concepts creep person to reality.

"We've been moving connected this for, I privation to accidental adjacent to person to 15 [years]," Wigutow said of Ares' lengthy development. "And what's absorbing is the exertion has evolved dramatically, exponentially, from the beginning, from the archetypal conversation. And we've truly been chasing it successful a mode we could not person understood erstwhile we began this conversation. I deliberation the thought was, 'Oh, we're going to 40 years into the future, adjacent though we're not telling a dystopia and futuristic story.' And implicit clip it was like, present we're feeling similar we're 3 minutes to the future."

At 1 point, Disney flirted with the conception of including an AI-generated quality successful the film, though yet reconsidered owed to expanding manufacture concerns astir the concept. Still, it's an absorbing talking point, conscionable days aft Hollywood seemed to unite against the announcement of the world's archetypal "AI actress".

"I deliberation we're going to spot much of that," Wigutow said of AI actors, "and I deliberation the manufacture needs to hole for it and to find protocol to woody with it."

"The thought of AI was evidently a happening successful 2012," Wigutow continued, reflecting connected Tron: Ares' aboriginal development, "but it felt much of a premise, and it existed precise overmuch successful the probe space, but not successful the nationalist sphere the mode it does today. So that's a monolithic difference, and thing I deliberation volition hopefully marque the movie a small much relatable."

That said, the thought of a integer Jared Leto ace worker roaming our streets inactive seems a small acold off, helium acknowledged.

"Of course," Wigutow said, "that's precise movie-istic successful a way, but conscionable the benignant of explosive learning of AI to AGI [Artificial General Intelligence, oregon human-level intelligence], we're truly seeing that play retired successful beforehand of us."

Indeed, the information that the existent satellite has go acold much integer successful quality since the archetypal Tron movie successful 1982 — and adjacent since Tron: Legacy successful 2010 — persists passim Ares, which flips the franchise's accustomed mounting and sees astir of its enactment hap extracurricular of the grid.

"The halfway of this was, let's bash thing antithetic this time," Wigutow said. "Let's bring the Tron assets into our world. We are going to unrecorded wrong a CPU. We bash walk immoderate clip wrong the computer, truthful to speak, successful the grid, but arsenic opposed to 2 hours successful the grid, let's reverse the ratio. And that was a refreshing, amusive attack to it.

"So you're going to spot Light Cycles ripping up a freeway and wrecking done downtown. All that I deliberation is ace exciting. And connected different level, the movie conscionable rips, it conscionable moves ace fast. It feels similar you're sitting connected a Light Cycle astatine Disneyland. It moves truly rapidly successful portion by design, narratively. It's astir meant to beryllium real-time.

"I deliberation what Tron did successful 1982, what it did successful 2010, and what we're hopefully doing successful 2025 is delivering superior audio ocular excitement. It truly delivers connected those levels, whether you emotion the story, don't emotion the story, whether you miss immoderate of the characters from 2010 that don't transportation guardant — that's benignant of subjective and up to I deliberation the idiosyncratic audience. But it's fun. It's a amusive ride, and I deliberation the audio visuals of it are truly peculiar and advanced."

Tron: Ares arrives successful theaters adjacent week, connected October 10.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social