Flynn Lives! New TRON: ARES Trailer Puts The Spotlight on Flynn and His Legacy
Disney just unleashed an awesome new trailer for Tron: Ares, and while the film is packed with new footage, characters and high-tech spectacle, the real spotlight belongs to Jeff Bridges.
For longtime fans of the Grid, seeing Kevin Flynn back in the mix is the emotional core of this trailer, even if most of his presence comes from footage pulled from the first two films.
Bridges has been the heartbeat of this franchise since the original Tron debuted over 40 years ago. He returned in Tron: Legacy 15 years later, where Flynn seemingly sacrificed himself to save his son Sam.
That ending left fans questioning if we’d ever see him again, which makes his presence here all the more exciting. Whether this is truly Flynn or something else is the big mystery.
In the film, Ares (Jared Leto) must return to the 1982 grid at one point in the story, and that’s where Flynn appears to still exist. But how? Is this the same Flynn we knew, or some new manifestation? The trailer teases the possibility without giving answers, which only fuels speculation.
Of course, Tron: Ares isn’t really about Flynn. The film follows Ares, described as “a highly sophisticated program, Ares (starring Jared Leto), who is sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission, marking humankind's first encounter with A.I. beings.”
That storyline dominates the latter half of the trailer, highlighting the conflict between programs and humanity, which could make or break the movie’s success.
Directed by Joachim Rønning, the film is being billed as a direct sequel to both Tron and Tron: Legacy, expanding the mythology while still tethering itself to its roots. The screenplay, writtenby Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne, continues the legacy of the original creators Steven Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird.
The cast includes Evan Peters, Jodie Turner-Smith, Cameron Monaghan, Sarah Desjardins, Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, and Gillian Anderson, alongside Leto and Bridges.
Flynn’s return might not be the center of the story, but it gives this movie the connective tissue that ties decades of Tron lore together. Nostalgia mixed with bold new ideas makes this an intriguing step for the franchise.
Tron: Ares opens in theaters worldwide on October 10, 2025.