Editor’s Note: The following contains major spoilers for ‘Tron: Ares.’After a grueling 15-year wait for fans, Tron: Ares is finally here, and it brings with it one doozy of an ending. Within about a half an hour, we get to see a Recognizer lay siege onto a human city, the grand return of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), and even get a very big hint that Ares (Jared Leto) is now trying to find Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) and Quorra (Olivia Wilde) after they went off grid (so to speak) after Tron: Legacy. The latter development undeniably plants the seeds for a potential Tron 4. However, perhaps the biggest hint towards a potential sequel comes during the film’s mid-credits scene, which shows a now imprisoned Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) finding an older identity disk that seemingly transforms the villainous CEO into a reincarnated version of Sark — the main antagonist of the original 1982 Tron film played by David Warner (who also plays Julian’s on-screen grandfather Edward Dillinger as well as voices the Master Control Program in the 1982 movie). Tron fans everywhere are likely to have questions, with Collider’s own Steve Weintraub being one of them. Steve had the opportunity to discuss the future of the franchise with stars Evan Peters and Gillian Anderson, as well as director Joachim Rønning, to find out what we can expect. When Peters was asked when we might see the villainous character again, the X-Men franchise alum gave a fairly candid response:
“Well, we’ll see. We’ll see in 20 years if that pans out. But it was incredibly cool to be inside the Grid, and in the creation, but it was surreal. I didn’t actually get to put on the Sark helmet, which is kind of a bummer, but I did get a little lean back, and he does lean back a lot in the original Tron. I wonder if they had, like, metal things for his legs so he could go all the way back when Master C is electrocuting him or taking his power?”
X-Files icon Gillian Anderson, who plays Julian’s overbearing mother Elisabeth Dillinger before she’s killed by Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith) in Tron: Ares, even chimed in with the idea to revive her character in the Grid. When Anderson asked Peters, “What character traits would you allow me to have, and which would you want me to leave behind?”, Peters jokingly responded by saying, “It’s a tricky question. The hovering helicopter mom, I would probably get rid of first.” That said, he did also say, “But I would definitely give you an awesome light suit and a very cool helmet. A very cool, chic-looking…”
‘Tron: Ares’ Director Says ‘Tron 4’ Is in the Hands of the Fans

The prospect of Peters returning to the franchise as a villain we haven’t seen in several decades is certainly exciting, though a separate conversation Steve Weintraub had with the film’s director, Joachim Rønning, the Pirates of the Caribbean and Maleficent franchise filmmaker clarified his stance on a fourth installment. When asked for specifics on what’s next for the series, Rønning was fully honest in saying, “If we are lucky enough to be able to continue this story, if enough people go and watch this version and this next installment, we can answer those questions.” He continued by sharing his focus on Tron: Ares for the time being while also teasing his hopes for a follow-up:
“It’s a little bit a part of the journey when you’re trying to make things land. So, I can’t sit there and have all the answers for you right now because I’ve been just so into the present, getting this film done. For me, it’s like, yeah, we’ll get to that. We’ve obviously thought of that, but for me, it was just such an amazing moment to have Sark back and to be able, again, to just honor the franchise somehow, and the original movie.”
Rønning’s commentary is spot on when it comes to his thoughts on what’s needed for a possible Tron 4, as middling box office success is exactly why it took 15 years to get another Tron movie to begin with. Both the original Tron and Tron: Legacy did have somewhat decent box office performances and have amassed very dedicated fanbases, but neither were the mega-hit franchise starters that Disney likely wanted them to be. Tron: Legacy in particular, despite likely making a small profit with a global gross of over $400 million, is often considered a box office disappointment after a colossal marketing campaign and just barely breaking even domestically on its $170 million budget. Unless you want to wait another ten years for the next Tron movie, make sure you see Tron: Ares in theaters now.

Release Date

October 10, 2025

Runtime

119 minutes

Director

Joachim Rønning

Writers

Jesse Wigutow, David DiGilio, Steven Lisberger, Bonnie MacBird

Producers

Jared Leto, Jeffrey Silver, Sean Bailey, Steven Lisberger, Emma Ludbrook