Tron Creator Says Ares Lets Programs Into the Real World — and Raises Big Questions About AI
Tron: Ares flips the long-running franchise by sending programs into the real world, and Steven Lisberger — the creator of the original 1982 Tron — talked about how the series has evolved and his role on the new film.
What the movie changes
Tron: Ares reverses the franchise’s usual setup. Instead of humans entering a digital world, the film brings digital programs into the physical world, and it shows their vehicles and weapons operating in “meatspace.” The trailer indicates that the program Ares causes violent consequences for people outside the Grid.
The plot centers on Ares (Jared Leto), described as a military computer program created by tech entrepreneur Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), who moves from the digital realm into the real world for a mission. The film also continues the franchise’s interest in the relationship between creators and their creations.
Lisberger on metaphor and AI
Lisberger said he has always seen Tron as a metaphor. “To me, one of the main values of Tron — and it’s been true from the very beginning — is that it can be considered a metaphor for our world,” he said in a Zoom interview. He framed the series as an alternate world with alternate versions of ourselves, and asked what those creations would think of their creators.
He added that the franchise’s themes focus on limits and reflection. “The deeper you look into the void, the more you reveal about yourself,” Lisberger said. He connected that idea to current questions about artificial intelligence, saying that building AI may reveal more about people than about technology.
Lisberger also described his role on Ares as supportive rather than directive. “I didn’t have anybody in the back seat telling me where to go back in ’82, and it doesn’t feel right to me to be in the back seat telling this team where to go,” Lisberger said. “I’m there to help them make their film. They’re not there to help me make my film. And this is what they feel: They feel that this world that we created, that once was separate from us, has now merged with us.
“And I think that’s valid. [It addresses the] questions about Where is AI? How is it going to deal with us? Is it going to have any limitations? And if it does have limitations, who is going to impose those limitations? Who is going to contain the AI?”
Lisberger’s unmade sequel ideas
Before Tron: Legacy arrived, Lisberger pitched other sequel concepts to Disney. One recurring idea focused on competing search engines as cinematic antagonists. “I was pretty excited about search engines,” Lisberger said. “You have something searching for a goal, and competing search engines. So I got into writing stories about that.”
He said that another idea evolved into what became Tron: Legacy’s themes. “I emphasized the first one, the search engines, for quite some time, but that didn’t get much traction. And then I finally started bringing up the [Colonel Kurtz metaphor], and that got a lot of traction from the beginning.”
Credits and release details
Tron: Ares is directed by Joachim Rønning and based on a screenplay by Jesse Wigutow. Steven Lisberger is credited as an executive producer and creative consultant. The cast includes Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, Jodie Turner-Smith, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan, Gillian Anderson, and Jeff Bridges, who returns as Flynn.
The film opens in theaters on October 10.
