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"

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."

"There's some great sequences, some great chase sequences, and obviously the mixture of the CG and also the practical sets, it doesn't feel too digitalized," Anderson continues. "It really feels like this is a world that exists, which is hard to do. And it's a race against time. I feel like it's really a pressure cooker and a time bomb. It just moves."

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.

Tron: Ares hits theaters on October 10. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2025 and beyond.