“Tron: Ares,” the third “Tron” movie that will star Jared Leto, has added some serious indie cred.
Greta Lee, the breakout of A24’s critical darling “Past Lives,” and “Queen & Slim” and “After Yang” actress Jodie Turner-Smith, have both joined the cast of the sci-fi film at Disney, an individual with knowledge of the project told IndieWire.
Lee and Turner-Smith join a cast that includes Leto and Evan Peters. The film will be directed by Joachim Rønning (“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” “Kon-Tiki”).
Lee will play the female lead in the project, a brilliant video game programmer and co-CEO of one of the world’s most successful technology companies. Turner-Smith has a significant role in the project, but her part is being kept under wraps.
Plot details haven’t been unveiled, either, but THR is reporting that the film follows Leto as Ares, the manifestation of an all-powerful, sentient computer program, who makes his way into the real world. The first two “Tron” movies, including the original from 1982 and the rebooted sequel from 2010, follow how someone manages to get sucked into the computerized world of a video game.
Jesse Wigutow and Jack Thorne wrote the script for “Tron: Ares.”
The original “Tron” has become a cult classic and a groundbreaking early example of computer-generated imagery and animation on screen. The sequel “Tron: Legacy,” which brought back the original’s star Jeff Bridges and was directed by “Top Gun: Maverick” filmmaker Joseph Kosinski, brought in a respectable $400 million at the global box office, but a third film that would’ve brought back some of the cast from that film never got off the ground. “Tron: Legacy” is also famous for its score by Daft Punk.
Lee broke out in a big way in Celine Song’s “Past Lives,” which IndieWire considers one of the finest movies of the year so far. But she’s also lent her voice to both of the “Spider-Verse” movies and is known for parts in “Russian Doll” and “The Morning Show.”
Turner-Smith will next be seen in the Disney+ Star Wars series “The Acolyte” and was recently seen in “Murder Mystery 2” and in “White Noise.”
Turner-Smith is represented by UTA, 111 Media, the Lede Company and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole. Lee is represented by UTA, Anonymous Content, and Jackoway Tyerman.
THR first reported the news of Lee’s casting, and Turner-Smith’s casting was first reported by Variety.
