Gillian Anderson and Evan Peters on what makes Tron: Ares "feel like it's all new" while still honoring the original franchise: "It's a race against time"

Gillian Anderson and Evan Peters as Elisabeth and Julian Dillinger in Tron: Ares — (Image credit: Disney Plus)

Tron: Ares stars Gillian Anderson and Evan Peters say the threequel keeps things fresh, while still managing to honor the original 1982 film.

"So much of that was in the writing and in what Jared and Justin and Yokem imagined for this," Anderson tells GamesRadar+. "And I think they did such an exceptional job, tying all of the worlds together and making it feel like it's all new, but at the same time, harkens back to the elements that everybody only hopes are in there. There's a lot in there that I think people are going to be very happy about."

The third installment in the Disney film series follows Eve Kim (Greta Lee), the current chief executive officer of Kevin Flynn's ENCOM, as she sets out in search of the permanence code. In the world of Tron, things that are created digitally can only exist in real life for 29 minutes. With the permanence code, any digitally generated object becomes real... which has the power to both change and harm humanity as we know it.

Peters plays Julian Dillinger, the grandson of the famously evil Ed Dillinger, with Anderson as Elisabeth, Julian's mother and Ed's daughter. Julian unleashes a new AI onto the world: a military soldier known as Ares (Jared Leto), with another soldier, Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith), as his female counterpart. After realizing that Eve has found the permanence code, he sends Ares after her... but things don't exactly go according to plan.

"[In the] second film, the Dillingers are unveiling NCom12 and now Julian is unveiling this military AI, Ares," Peters says. "So it sort of kicks off the movie. But like you said, it was in the writing, and then our characters' relationship and dynamic – that was pretty fresh and new to the series. I was excited to jump on board with that."

Joachim Rønning directs from a screenplay by Jesse Wigutow (who is also a writer on Daredevil: Born Again). The cast includes Hasan Minhaj, Arturo Castro, Sarah Desjardins, none other than Jeff Bridges, and Cameron Monaghan in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo.

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.