With the upcoming Disney movie Tron: Ares still in production, there’s room for all sorts of surprises that director Joachim Rønning could manage to slip into this third adventure on The Grid. And apparently, that’s exactly what seems to be happening real soon, as a huge legacy cast member is about to continue his presence on the Tron franchise timeline.
Jeff Bridges Is Returning To The Grid For Tron: Ares
Brace yourselves programs, because Jeff Bridges is apparently about to do some filming for this long awaited three-quel, and I think it could mean something big. With the Film Comment podcast speaking to Bridges, in honor of his receiving the 49th Chaplin Award from Film at Lincoln Center, the actor’s entire legacy was up for discussion.
When it came time to discuss the world of Tron, the man who introduced the world to visionary Kevin Flynn made this low key announcement out of the blue:
I’m heading off this Saturday to play a part in the third installment of the ‘Tron’ story. I’m excited about that. … Jared Leto is the star of this third one, and I’m really anxious to work with him … to see what the technology is going to be all about.
Whoa. I seriously thought waiting for Tron: Ares’ 2025 release date was going to be enough of an issue, especially with that Dillinger-related easter egg in the first photo of Jared Leto’s Ares. The doors to the past seem pretty wide open, between Jeff Bridges putting himself on the Tron 3 cast list with this announcement, and Disney officially confirming the news with this message on social media:
Jeff Bridges returns to the grid. #TronAres pic.twitter.com/Ib5tnazwHTApril 29, 2024
All of this excitement is quite a bit to take in. However, seeing Mr. Bridges getting back into the game prompts me to ask two questions Programs and Users alike are going to be pondering in the aftermath: is Kevin Flynn alive, and if so, how did he survive the events of Tron: Legacy?
How Could Kevin Flynn Return In Tron: Ares?
Obviously with a world as wide as the Tron universe happens to be, there are so many different ways that Kevin Flynn could return. The method most plain to see would be a recreation of our dear friend springing from the data that his son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) downloaded from his father’s computer at the end of Tron: Legacy. Surely there have to be traces, if not full on backups, of Kevin’s own “biodigital jazz” stored on his workspace; just in case he happened to be trapped or lost.
Which leads to another theory that wouldn’t depend too much on Legacy’s ending, but swims in similar circles. What if Kevin Flynn’s experiments in the Digital Frontier led him to experiment with copies of himself on various hard drives? Remember, the man was the CEO of Encom before vanishing into his pet projects; so there has to be some data hiding in the offices he may have used over the years. In which case, let's hope not all of these data based doppelgängers take after CLU's more militaristic tendencies.
However we end up seeing Jeff Bridges return in Tron: Ares, one certainly hopes that if it requires de-aging, he’ll be more pleased with the results this time. When looking back on the efforts available for director Joseph Kosinski’s previous installment, the actor shared this story, complete with an admission of disappointment:
When I did ‘Tron Legacy,’ we had to put all these dots on our face and all these kinds of things. And that’s [probably] all passé. I had to see myself as a young guy, or as another character, but the same guy, but it was gonna be digitally created. … I didn’t like the way I looked in it; I felt like I looked more like Bill Maher than myself; it was kind of bizarre.
While the waters have been a bit muddy on how Tron: Legacy would be folded into the events of Tron: Ares, it appears that things might be getting clearer as we get closer to release day. There’s a lot of potential for a lot of familiar faces to return. Could Sam, Quorra, or even Alan Bradley/Tron be on the bill for the next big surprises?
All these questions, and more, stand to be answered as Tron: Ares starts up The Grid once more, only in theaters, on October 10, 2025. In the meantime, there’s plenty of action to be had on the 2024 movie release schedule. Not to mention, if you have access to a Disney+ subscription, you can follow the Tron saga from the first game to the (current) End of Line.
