Disney has officially revealed the first look at Tron: Ares, their upcoming sequel set to take audiences back to the Grid in a story directed by Joachim Rønning. The image shows a modern design for a character sporting the look viewers have come to know and love over the course of decades, setting the stage for an unpredictable adventure scheduled to hit theaters next year. Around fifteen years after Tron: Legacy gave a new definition to the future of the Grid, Tron: Ares will continue the story with a premise that will break the boundaries of what can be expected from the franchise.

Tron: Ares will follow a highly sophisticated Program sent from the digital world into the real world on a dangerous mission. Ares’ arrival in the human world will mark the first time a Program interacts with any person that wasn’t sucked into a machine’s software, sending the Tron franchise into uncharted territory. The cast of the sequel includes Jared Leto, Evan Peters, Greta Lee, Hasan Minhaj, Jodie Turner-Smith, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan and Gillian Anderson. Details surrounding the characters of the movie weren’t revealed at the moment, but knowing the high stakes of previous installments in the series, Tron: Ares is ready to usher the franchise into a new era.

Disney trusts Joachim Rønning to lead the next installment in the Tron franchise after the filmmaker worked with the studio in titles such as Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, the upcoming Young Woman and the Sea andPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the sequel he directed alongside Espen Sandberg. Rønning‘s experience is perfect for continuing the franchise more than a decade after Tron: Legacy earned around $400 million at the global box office, keeping the studio interested in developing another story set in this world.

What is ‘Tron’ About?

Written and directed by Steven Lisberger in 1982, the original Tron movie introduced a world where an artificial intelligence model evolved to the point of being able to take Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) from the real world into a digital one. After realizing that the reality he was sent to is full of sentient Programs, Flynn befriends some of them in order to escape, eventually becoming the CEO of ENCOM. Decades later, during the events of Tron: Legacy, Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) was sucked into the Grid while looking for his father, where he would eventually face an evil Program named Clu (also played by Bridges). It remains to be seen how the events of Tron: Ares will be connected to what has come before the sequel.

Tron: Ares will hit theaters in 2025. The first two movies are streaming now on Disney+.

via Collider