New Tron: Ares Footage Reveals Thrilling Lightcycle Sequence & More at Comic-Con

Nearly fifteen years after the release of Tron: Legacy, and well over forty-years after the release of the original film, Disney is hoping Tron: Ares recaptures the excitement as the franchise looks to go off grid. On Friday, Disney held a panel for the upcoming Tron sequel at San Diego Comic-Con where the studio unveiled two exciting clips for those in audience at the film’s Hall H panel. The panel featured cast members including Jared Leto, Jeff Bridges, and Cameron Monaghan, while immersing the audience in the feel of being in the movie through the use of sounds and lights to feel as though they were a part of the iconic Grid world featured in the Tron films.

More importantly, though, the panel also unveiled fresh new clips from the film. The first trailer for Tron: Ares was officially released back in April, with the film’s first full-length trailer arriving earlier this month on July 17th. With the movie set to hit theaters later this year, it’s clear Walt Disney Pictures is hoping to garner some word of mouth for the long-gestating sequel ahead of its release. Especially since, while Tron was an iconic movie when it was released in 1982, the sequel, Tron: Legacy was seen as a modest success for Walt Disney, resulting in a long wait for a follow-up movie. Now, Tron: Ares is set to bring a unique spin on the beloved franchise, and the clips shown at San Diego Comic-Con should, hopefully, inject some much-needed excitement into the general audience.

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New Tron: Ares Footage Brings Ares and Athena into Our World

The first clip shown as part of the panel opened with Evan Peters, who is playing a descendant of David Warner’s Edward Dillinger/Sark from the original Tron movie. In the clip, he sends Ares (Jared Leto) and Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith) into the real world using a reverse of the original movie’s technology that brought Jeff Bridges’ character, Kevin Flynn, into the world of Tron. Both Ares and Athena are brought into our reality, along with their lightcycles, and sent to try to locate Eve Kim (Greta Lee), a brilliant programmer, who has a piece of code that Julian Dillinger (Peters) is after.

With the two of them after her, Kim takes to the streets on her own motorcycle while Ares makes use of the public CCTV footage to locate her, eventually tracking her down to a bridge. Realizing that she is being pursued, Kim gets a police offer to begin pursuing her, leading to Ares activating the light trail on his lightcycle and slicing the car in half. As Ares approaches her, Kim makes a sudden move and pivots off the bridge, back onto the street, cutting her off from Ares as a bus drives between them. This results in Leto’s Ares doing the famous “Akira slide.”

Ares is left behind, but Athena is still in pursuit of Kim and follows her into a parking lot. Kim waits until the lightcycle goes up the ramp, sending her own motorcycle over a ledge and successfully knock Athena from her cycle and back down to the ground. Kim looks over the edge and sees her body and then turns to note her unattended lightcycle. As Kim begins to mess with the lightcycle, though, Athena ultimately wakes up and begins her pursuit of Kim on foot. Luckily, Kim gets the lightcycle up and running, riding off and leaving Athena in the dust.

Second Tron: Ares SDCC Clip Features Eve Kim and Ares Working Together

The second clip shown as part of the panel took place inside of the grid. It revealed Greta Lee’s Eve Kim submerged in water, with Jared Leto’s Ares jumping into the water to save up. Interestingly, rather than using a lightcycle, Ares makes use of a lightjetski in the scene. As the two try to make their escape, Athena sends in drones to ultimately pursue the two of them, resulting in Kim realizing Ares has disobeyed a direct order to retrieve the code from her disc and “delete her,” a command issued by Dillinger.

As the drones continue to pursue them, Ares offers to send her back into the real world, only if she can retrieve the code and bring it back, all the while the drones continue their pursuit after them. As the drones begin to close in, with their light beams coming close, the jetski transforms and become a submersible. As it moves ahead of the drones, the cycle flies up through the water and into the air, destroying the drones and putting both Kim and Ares back into the real world and out of the Grid.

Tron: Ares is directed by Joachim Rønning from a screenplay by Jesse Wigutow, based on a story Wigutow crafted with David DiGilio. The film features an all-star cast that not only includes Leto, Peters, Bridges, and Turner-Smith, but also includes Gillian Anderson, Cameron Monaghan, and Hasan Minhaj. Tron: Ares is set to hit theaters on October 10, 2025.

Those eager to revisit the Grid can do so by streaming both Tron and Tron: Legacy now on Disney+.