Jared Leto Plays AI Who Joins the Real World

The grid is back online.

Disney unveiled the first footage of “Tron: Ares,” the third film in the sci-fi franchise about a world of virtual reality based inside a computer mainframe. Cast members Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Greta Lee and Jeff Bridges unveiled the first look on Friday night during Disney’s marathon presentation of its upcoming slate during the D23 Expo.

At the end of the footage, a title card revealed that the score was compased by Nine Inch Nails, the industrial rock and electronica band founded by Trent Reznor and joined in 2016 by frequent collaborator Atticus Ross. Reznor and Ross, who’ve won Oscars for their scores for 2010’s “The Social Network” and 2020’s “Soul,” appeared briefly on stage together after the announcement.

Leto stars in the film as Ares, one of the programs from the digital universe who is tasked to enter the real world. Lee plays Eve Kim, a human character who is, Lee said, “a brilliant programmer whose greatest work provides a path for ares to come into our world.” Peters plays Julian Dillinger, who shares a last name with the villain of the first “Tron” film, first released in 1982.

“Dillinger doesn’t always mean great things for those on the grid,” Peters said.

The footage opens with Dillinger holding forth on the future of humanity during a keynote presentation. “Since time began, man has gazed at the stars and wondered, am I alone?” he says. “Turns out we’ve been looking in the wrong direction, because intelligent life does exist — but it’s not out there, it’s in here. So much talk of AI and big tech, virtual worlds, when are we gonna get there. Well folks, we’re not going. They are coming here.”

The footage cuts to Ares in the real world, touching the rain. “There is something at work in my soul, I do not understand,” he says. “I came here to find something.”

The rest of the footage included shots of a car bing sliced in half by a light cycle and a barefoot Bridges in white robes intoning, “Greetings, program.”

Joachim Rønning (“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”) is directing from a script by Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne. The film costars Jodie Turner-Smith, Gillian Anderson, Hasan Minaj, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan and Sarah Desjardins.

“Technology and AI is especially omnipresent in all our lives,” Bridges said before the footage screened. “What a perfect time to revisit this amazing world. More appropriately, to have this amazing world visit us.”

“Tron: Ares” is a continuation of one of the longest running (and unlikeliest) film trilogies in modern film history. Although a box office disappointment, “Tron,” from writer-director Steven Lisberger, was heralded as the first feature film to make extensive use of computer generated imagery. The story follows a video game developer, Kevin Flynn (Bridges), who is unwittingly zapped into a cutthroat digital universe. Bridges reprised the role when Disney revived the franchise with 2010’s “Tron: Legacy,” the directorial debut of future “Top Gun: Maverick” filmmaker Joseph Kosinski.

“It’s really unbelievable to think we made the original in 1982,” Bridges said during the presentation. “It’s amazing  — we never thought we would have this legacy that’s continued on all these years.”

Bridges revealed on a podcast in April that he’s returning for “Tron: Ares,” but his “Legacy” costars Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde — who respectively play Flynn’s grown son and a sentient program who joins the real world — are not set to appear in the new film.

Leto first signed onto “Tron: Ares” in 2017 as a star and producer. Justin Springer, Jeffrey Silver and Emma Ludbrook are also producing.