Jeff Bridges has confirmed that he will return for the upcoming third installment in the Tron franchise, Tron: Ares.
Bridges made the announcement during a recent appearance on the Film Comment podcast, confirming that he will “play a part” in the film. Continuing, he expressed that he has “admired” the work of the new movie’s star, Jared Leto, and is “excited” to work with him. He also spoke about his anticipation to “see what the technology is gonna be all about.”
Bridges starred in the original Tron as video game developer Kevin Flynn and and his program, Clu. He later reprised the role in 2010’s Tron Legacy. Recalling filming Tron: Legacy, he explained that the motion-capture technology used then is now “passé,” and the third movie will have “even less AI stuff,” and will instead use “more actual sets, [which are] beautiful.”
Continuing, Bridges told Film Comment’s host, Devika Girish, that he “didn’t like the way [he] looked in” Tron: Legacy because of the visual effects used on his character. “I felt like I looked more like Bill Maher than myself,” he joked. “It was kinda bizarre.”
First announced several years back, Tron: Ares is due in 2025. The film was directed by Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil), and will star Leto, along with Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, Jodie Turner-Smith, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan, and Gillian Anderson. Production began this past January in Vancouver.
Bridges appearance in the upcoming Tron will be his first film role since 2018’s Bad Times at the El Royale. After battling cancer in 2020 — and almost dying from COVID-19 during chemo treatments — he returned to acting with 2022’s The Old Man, which will return for a second season sometime this year.