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Tom Russell
Published 18 minutes ago
Tom is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, with expertise covering all things Classic TV from hilarious sitcoms to jaw-dropping sci-fi.
Initially he was an Updates writer, though before long he found his way to the Classic TV team. He now spends his days keeping Screen Rant readers informed about the TV shows of yesteryear, whether it's recommending hidden gems that may have been missed by genre fans or deep diving into ways your favorite shows have (or haven't) stood the test of time.
Tom is based in the UK and when he's not writing about TV shows, he's watching them. He's also an avid horror fiction writer, gamer, and has a Dungeons and Dragons habit that he tries (and fails) to keep in check.
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Despite Disney’s big ambitions for the Tron franchise, 2025’s Tron: Ares has received the same divisive response from audiences and critics that Legacy did in 2010. Instead of reigniting mainstream passion for the Grid, Ares became yet another attempt to recapture the magic of 1982’s Tron that fell short.
Fans of the franchise watched Ares hoping it would finally elevate Tron into the cinematic powerhouse Disney keeps insisting it can be. Instead, it made the same mistakes all over again. What makes Ares’ shortcomings so frustrating is how strongly they contrast with the franchise’s hidden gem.
While the trilogy of Tron movies has offered diminishing returns in terms of cohesion, imagination, and ambition, one entry in the wider franchise stands as proof that the IP absolutely works. It just didn’t arrived in theaters. It arrived on TV on DisneyXD, far away from blockbuster budgets and box office expectations.
The 2012 TV series Tron: Uprising quietly delivered everything Tron fans had been waiting for. It didn’t just refine the aesthetic and the mythology, it perfected them. The Tron TV show still sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, and its creative success highlights exactly why Ares failed. If Disney genuinely wants to make Tron a household name, it needs to learn from Uprising and stop repeating Ares’ mistakes.
Tron: Uprising Is A Reminder Of What Tron: Ares Could Have Been
Uprising Proved Tron’s Potential While Ares Ignored It
Tron: Uprising showed just how much narrative depth and stylistic power the Tron universe has when creators fully commit to its core ideas. The show embraced the lore, tone, and visual language of the franchise more confidently than either Legacy or Aries. It bridged the films with surprising elegance, creating a cohesive Grid full of political tension, emotional stakes, and stylistic clarity that felt unmistakably Tron.
Uprising follows Beck (voiced by Elijah Wood), a program mentored by Tron (voiced by Bruce Boxleitner) after Clu’s rise to power. Uprising manages to be both a rebellion story and a character study, blending slick neon-cyberpunk action with grounded emotional arcs. The sleek angular animation, the Daft Punk–inspired score, and the worldbuilding choices brought the franchise to life more vividly than Ares ever attempted.
In contrast, Tron: Ares felt disconnected from the larger mythology. The movie operates like a standalone sci-fi project that occasionally remembers it’s part of the Tron universe. It doesn’t meaningfully build on Legacy, nor does it deepen the philosophical conflicts that define the franchise. Even the aesthetic, Tron’s most universally praised element, felt muted, stripped back, and at times unrecognizable.
While Uprising thrived by leaning into what made Tron distinct, Ares often seemed afraid of its own identity. The TV show proved over a decade ago that any modern Tron project can embrace the franchise’s look, themes, and history while still telling fresh stories. There was no reason a new Tron film couldn’t have delivered something as ambitious, stylish, and cohesive as Uprising.
Fans of Tron weren’t asking for nostalgia, they wanted the Grid to evolve. Uprising accomplished exactly that, which makes Ares’ underwhelming creative direction even harder to justify. The animated series demonstrated that the Tron franchise is overflowing with untapped potential. It’s the movies that keep refusing to use it.
Why Tron: Ares Ignored Most Of Tron
Ares Treated Tron Like A Soft Reboot Instead Of A Universe
Much of Tron: Ares’ detachment from franchise history comes from how the creative team approached the movie. Ares wasn’t designed as a continuation of Legacy, it was intentionally shaped as a soft reboot meant to modernize Tron for new audiences.
According to writer Jesse Wigutow (via IGN), the Ares creative team didn’t believe most of the existing Tron characters or mythology connected strongly enough with the general public to justify building the story around them. As Wigutow explained:
"There is a hardcore fanbase that really cares about the mythology and the characters that were carried into Legacy and out of Legacy, but I don't know that the world cares about those characters in the same way they would about a Darth Vader or a Skywalker. So honestly, it was really about, well, what is a reason to tell the story today?"
That philosophy shaped every part of Ares. The filmmakers leaned away from Grid-centric storytelling, placing the new character Ares (Jared Leto) in a narrative framework that leans far more heavily on the “programs encounter the real world” hook than on the franchise’s digital mythology. The iconic setting was minimized, the thematic conflicts were reworked, and Ares only occasionally resembled the sleek neon dystopia the series is known for.
This left fans feeling like Ares wasn’t built for them, or for the Tron universe as a whole. The 2025 movie tried to modernize the aesthetics, but in doing so, it stripped away the worldbuilding depth and techno-philosophical identity that made Tron unique. The Light Cycles were reimagined for real-world city streets, the lore was simplified, and the entire movie often felt like an outsider’s approximation of a Tron story.
Meanwhile, Tron: Uprising fully embraced the lore that Ares side-stepped. The show expanded the political dynamics of the Grid, deepened the moral conflict between programs and authoritarian control, and treated every design choice as an extension of the world’s internal logic. Ares treated Tron as a brand to reboot; Uprising treated it as a universe worth exploring.
This fundamental difference in philosophy explains why the small-screen project succeeded where the big-screen revival failed. Ares didn’t misunderstand Tron, it simply didn’t think most of it mattered.
Tron Needs To Return To Television After Tron: Ares' Box Office Failure
Ares’ Flop Proves Tron Belongs On TV, Not In Theaters
Tron: Ares’ financial struggles all but guarantee the franchise needs another direction. With an estimated budget between $180 and $220 million, the movie’s global box office haul of around $141 million is a clear underperformance (via Box Office Mojo). Just like Legacy, it failed to reignite the brand as a blockbuster property. For the second time in 15 years, the Grid crashed at the ticket booth.
Stepping back, it’s obvious that Tron’s most successful and critically acclaimed modern project was its TV entry. Tron: Uprising wasn’t just a strong animated series, it was proof that the universe thrives when given time to breathe. The Grid is a setting built on philosophical ideas, technological metaphors, political hierarchies, and moral dilemmas.
These aren’t concepts that fit neatly into a two-hour theatrical structure, especially not one trying to simultaneously relaunch a brand. The TV series format provides room for Tron to explore identity, rebellion, digital consciousness, and the evolution of programs without being constrained by box office expectations. The format allows for long-form storytelling, character development, and visual experimentation. Uprising proved this definitively.
If Disney wants Tron to survive, the answer isn’t another blockbuster reboot, it’s a prestige sci-fi series that embraces the IP’s unique strengths. If comparing Uprising to Ares proves anything, it’s that the Tron franchise’s future lies on the small screen, not the big one.
8.5/10
Tron: Uprising
10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like Follow Followed TV-Y7 Animation Drama Sci-Fi & Fantasy Family Action Release Date 2012 - 2013-00-00 Network Disney Channel, Disney XD Directors Charlie Bean Writers Akela CooperCast
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Elijah Wood
Beck
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Lance Henriksen
Tesler
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Tron (Franchise)
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TRON: Ares
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