16 Years Later, Tron 3 Finally Brings Its Biggest Fan Into the Franchise

Tron: Ares is arriving in theaters 16 years after Tron: Legacy (2010) wowed a generation in all its 3D glory. That’s actually not a controversial gap for the franchise, as Legacy hit theaters 28 years after the original Tron (1982). For that entire span of 44 years, the Tron franchise has had a massive fan in Oscar-winning actor Jared Leto (Morbius, Suicide Squad), who was the tender age of 9 when Tron was released. Now Leto has come full circle, starring in Tron: Ares as the titular “Ares,” a revolutionary AI who may be evolving faster than his handlers would like.

ComicBook had the chance to be included in the press pool invited to visit the set of Tron: Ares and speak with one of the producers of the film, Justin Springer. Springer was all too willing to address the hands of fate that have brought Jared Leto around to getting cast in a Tron movie.

Tron: Ares Has Been A Nearly 20-Year Mission For Jared Leto

“[Jared Leto] He’s been a lifelong fan of the franchise. When we were making Legacy, we got an incoming call saying, ‘Hey, Jared, we’d love to talk to you about Tron. If there’s any part for him, he’d love to be involved in the movie.’ We were very close to shooting at that point, and there wasn’t any way for him to be involved. As soon as we were on to a sequel, we started to talk Jared into more interest; like, it’s a franchise that was just super important to him as a kid and something he would be excited to be involved in as an actor. So that was like in 2009, ‘10, ‘11, ‘12, all that time.”

Not only was Jared Leto willing to get more involved in the Tron franchise, he was actually tapped as one of the leads (the villain) of Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski’s planned sequel, Tron: Ascension. That project fell apart in development, but Jared Leto was not deterred from his goal to be a part of the franchise.

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“When we were going to make Ascension, he was going to play the villain in the story,” Springer explained. “So that was like a way we found naturally to build around him, which he was involved in then. That was announced that he was going to be a part of the story. And then the studio decided not to make that movie. It went on ice for a couple of years, but Jared kept knocking on the door of the studio and [they’d say], ‘Hey, is there any franchise you’d like to be a part of?’ And he’s like, ‘Still Tron.’ So when we started a new development phase, I don’t know, 2017 maybe, 2018, we started with Jared.”

Jared Leto Had A Big Hand In Making Tron: Ares What It Is

Jared Leto isn’t just starring in Tron: Ares; he’s also attached as a producer of the film. And, according to his co-producer Justin Springer, Leto’s been as active and dedicated on the producing side as he has been as an actor.

“[Jared] came on to star and to produce with us, and I’ve worked with him on it from the ground up,” Springer explained. “So different than just going out and hiring an actor and saying, this guy feels right for the part now that we’ve built the whole story. He’s really been somebody who’s wanted to be involved in the franchise for a really long time, and we’ve built the story up with him. It’s an ensemble movie with lots of different storylines going on, but he is the AI that sort of awakens in this movie. So it’s been a long-term kind of relationship and long-term interest, and ultimate collaboration.”