Director Joachim Rønning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) just recently took to Instagram to share that filming on Tron 3, rumored to be titled Tron: Ares, has finally started.
Filming was originally slated to begin this past summer but was delayed due to the tandem strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.
Now, Deadline Hollywood has confirmed that Gillian Anderson (X-Files, Sex Education) has joined the cast in a mystery role.
Disney is keeping details of the plot under wraps but Deadline was able to confirm that Jared Leto (Morbius, Suicide Squad) is portraying a character named Ares- a character that crosses over from the Grid to the real world.
If you recall, the final moments of Tron: Legacy saw Olivia Wilde's Quorra become the first computer algorithm to escape the Grid, as she joined Garret Hedlund's Sam Flynn in the real world. It seems Ares will be the second character in the franchise to do so.
There's still no word on whether Hedlund or Wilde are returning. Legacy also had its own ideas for a third film, as Cillian Murphy had a cameo appearance as Edward Dillinger, Jr. a current ENCOM senior executive and the son of the main villain in the first film, Ed Dillinger who was portrayed by David Warner.
Murphy's appearance was clearly a setup for a bigger role in a third film but it appears that Legacy's poor box office performance nixed those plans.
Where the Tron sequel failed, Disney XD produced a hit, with the 2012 Disney XD animated series, Tron: Uprising, which featured an all-star voice cast that included Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Lance Henriksen, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Reginald VelJohnson and Paul Reubens.
The animated series bridged the gap between the first film and Legacy, showcasing how CLU rose to power and the attempts by young revolutionaries trained by Tron to overthrow him. The series was canceled after one season but has since found a passionate fan base in the years that followed.
Rønning is directing from a script written by Jesse Wigutow (It Runs in the Family, The Prince) and Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) wrote the script.
Joining Leto and Anderson in the film are Evan Peters (WandaVision, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story), Greta Lee (Past Lives, The Morning Show), Jodie Turner-Smith (Without Remorse, White Noise), Sarah Desjardins (Yellowjackets, The Night Agent), and Cameron Monaghan (Shameless, Gotham).