Tron Ares Will Be a Soft Reboot of Tron Franchise Rather than a Sequel?

Bringing back one of the greatest feats of science fiction, Tron 3, titled Tron: Ares is set to make a release on October 10, 2025. Now there have been speculations that this is going to be a direct sequel to Tron: Legacy but it seems that there is something else going on. As far as I think, Tron: Ares is going to be more like a soft reboot of the Tron franchise rather than a sequel, and I’ve some credible reasons to believe.

Spoiler Warning: This post contains spoilers for Tron (1982) and Tron: Legacy (2010).

New Script, New Director and Costume Design

Okay, so now let me make some points for why Tron Ares can be a soft reboot. First of all, just too much time has passed. Tron: Legacy came out in 2010 and now releasing a direct sequel after 15 years just makes no sense. The Tron franchise has already once suffered with the critically mixed reviews received by Tron: Legacy as a sequel to Tron (1982). So, I don’t think they will let that happen again.

Another factor that makes me think this is that no characters we have seen previously have been announced as cast for Tron 3. Even if no one else, Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn and Olivia Wilde as Quorra should have been there if Tron: Ares was supposed to continue the tale from where Tron: Legacy left. Other than that, the script pitched to Disney by director Joseph Kosinski in 2015 revolved around an invasion from the world of Tron to the human world. However, the script was scrapped. Now finally when the movie is being made, it is with a different director (Joachim Rønning) so the story is most probably going to be different as well.

The final thing I would like to point out is the concept and costume design. Both the Tron movies, the original one in 1982 and Tron: Legacy in 2010 featured humans finding their way into the world of Tron but Tron: Ares is going to bring someone from the Tron universe into the human world, something we have only witnessed by the end of Tron: Legacy with no further leads.

Talking about the costume design. We have seen Blue and Yellow on the Grid but never red, as seen in the suit for Jared Leto’s Ares. Along with that, the data disc attached to Jared Leto’s Ares is well, not a disc but triangular. So, with all these striking differences, there is a huge possibility that instead of being a sequel, Tron 3 turns out to be a soft reboot.

Tron 3 Easter Egg in Jared Leto’s Suit

I’m pretty sure that by now you might have seen Jared Leto’s suit reveal. pretty cool right? But if you look closely there is a detail hidden in that suit that will most probably blow the minds of every Tron fan. If you zoom into the data disk attached to Ares, you can see Dillinger Systems inscribed on it.

If you have watched the first Tron movie you know that the bad guy Edward Dillinger, played by David Warner, is the head of ENCOM. In the movie, he stole the idea of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) and the whole movie revolves around Flynn trying to destroy the Master Control Program, ultimately making Flynn the head.

However, instead of Edward Dillinger, we get to see Cillian Murphy as Edward Dillinger Jr. in Tron: Legacy. He is a software engineer at ENCOM and was potentially going to be the villain in the scrapped 2015 version of Tron 3. So, if Ares is a creation of Dillinger Systems is he going to be a bad guy who goes through a whole arc turning into an anti-hero?

Also, if Dillinger Systems is a thing, is there a probability that we will get to see Cillian Murphy as the lead antagonist? This Tron 3 easter egg creates a plethora of different questions but to find out the answers to them, we will have to wait till the trailer for Tron: Ares drops till then, stay tuned with us for further updates!