While Jeff Bridges’ Kevin Flynn returns for a third time to the “TRON” franchise with the upcoming “TRON: Ares,” surprisingly neither Garrett Hedlund’s Sam Flynn or Olivia Wilde’s Quorra from the previous entry “TRON: Legacy” do.
Though the new film takes place in the same universe, it doesn’t follow their characters with the focus instead on Jared Leto’s Ares, a highly sophisticated program created by wunderkind Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters) and marks humankind’s first encounter with A.I. beings.
Greta Lee, Gillian Anderson, Hasan Minhaj, Jodie Turner-Smith, Arturo Castro and Cameron Monaghan co-star in the film which is being helmed by Joachim Rønning who explains to SFX Magazine why only Bridges is returning:
“These things are not only creative choices; sometimes actors don’t want to be in it anymore…There are different ways of looking at that, but I think the story fell into a place where we felt that we didn’t need the old characters to be front and centre. We wanted to take this into a new direction while, at the same time, honoring the universe that we’re in.”
Producer Justin Springer added more in his answer, with the lengthy gap between films contributing:
“We’re telling a story that’s 14 years later, and the most important thing is that we tell this new story in a way that works. To just throw cameos in, where it’s a parade of people that we love from this franchise, I just feel like it’s fan service that doesn’t serve the story.
But we are definitely focused on ways to surprise the audience. If we don’t touch something in this movie, I always think about where else we can play. I produced the animated series [Tron: Uprising] and I worked on the theme park rides. There are all sorts of different ways to keep the mythology alive, whether that be in a film or a series or whatever, if we’re so lucky.”
“TRON: Ares” arrives in cinemas on October 10th.
