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Disney's Tron: Ares will see Jared Leto plays Evil Digital Pinocchio, teases director

The relaunch of the digital action franchise with Tron: Ares sees Leto play a character who just wants to be real, man

Published on Tue Apr 08 2025

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When it comes to upcoming movie, Tron: Ares, the movie’s big villain has something in common with another Disney character, according to director Joachim Rønning — but perhaps not one that immediately springs to mind when thinking about computer-generated heavies.

“Not to be too clichéd, but I always thought about him a bit like Pinocchio,” Rønning told Empire, adding, “Ares wants to be a real boy.”

Perhaps we should put an emphasis on the boy part of that statement, as the director went on to say, “We talked a lot about him almost being an infant, discovering the world for the first time, and how we wanted the audience to see the world through his eyes… The little things that we take for granted, or don’t see anymore. That was important. And then a bigger theme for the film is what it takes — what it means — to be human. Especially in this case, because he’s a computer program.”

Perhaps Ares won’t be entirely the Machiavellian figure that audiences are expecting from Jared Leto, who’s previously played the Joker in 2016’s Suicide Squad and the menacing, otherworldly Niander Wallace in 2017’s Blade Runner 2049. Then again, he didn’t look entirely friendly in the first trailer for the new installment in the long-lived digital franchise.

Tron: Ares will be released October 10, 2025.

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Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.