Tron: Ares Adds X-Men Star Evan Peters

After years of rumors, it looks like a third film in the Tron franchise, Tron: Ares, is earning some genuine momentum, as The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that X-Men and Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story star Evan Peters has joined Jared Leto in the sequel. Reports about a third film in the series have circulated virtually ever since Tron: Legacy landed in theaters back in 2010, with many of those updates teasing that Leto would be involved in some capacity. While recent years have offered various status updates, such as confirmation that the film would be helmed by director Joachim Rønning, this is the first update on any stars outside of Leto. Tron: Ares will reportedly start shooting in August.

The outlet also offered some initial details about what audiences can expect from the plot, as they teased, “While the two previous movies were largely set inside the world of computers and programs, the script for Ares, written by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne, is said to focus on the emergence of a sentient program that crosses over into the human world that is not ready for contact. Leto, who has been attached to the project for several years, is to play Ares, the manifestation of the program. It is unclear who Peters would play although the script calls for a soldier in the computer world and an awkward gamer in the human world.”

The debut 1982 Tron starred Jeff Bridges as a video game designer who gets sucked into his own creation and must compete in its games to escape. While the film wasn’t entirely a hit at the time, its visual effects earned it a cult following. A sequel ultimately came together in 2010’s Tron: Legacy, which featured the return of Bridges and added Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde. In the sequel, Bridges’ character had been sucked back inside the game and it was up to his son (Hedlund) to save him.

Legacy was directed by Joseph Kosinski, who would go on to helm last year’s Top Gun: Maverick. Even though he jumped to the Tom Cruise-starring franchise, he previously admitted that he nearly managed to make a Tron 3 happen years ago.

“I got so close. I really tried. I got close in 2015, and Disney pulled the plug on it,” Kosinski shared with Vulture last year. “I hadn’t built anything, but I had the whole movie storyboarded and written. I was really excited because it was inverting the idea: It was all that stuff coming into our world, and it was about the blending of the two.”

Kosinski claimed that it was Disney’s focus on franchises like Marvel and Star Wars all those years ago that prevented his Tron 3 from ever moving forward.

Stay tuned for updates on Tron: Ares.

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