Ares totally wants you to forget about the new villain legacy he tried to set up

This article contains Spoilers About “Tron: Ares.”

For many years, it seemed like a sequel to the original 1982 “Tron” movie might never be made, like “Tron: Legacy.” Director Joseph Kosinski came close to pitching his idea for a sequel in 2015, but found Disney canceling the film at the last minute.. In Kosinski’s opinion, the studio had recently acquired the “Star Wars” and Marvel franchises, and thus had much less interest in pursuing “Tron” when it came to sci-fi/fantasy fare for multiplexes. Although Kosinski and his crew persisted, “Tron” didn’t exactly stop at Disney Writer Jesse Wiguto finally has a script for a third film. finally, “Tron: Ares” hits theaters this weekend.

Of course, this game of musical chairs with the film pushed many actors and characters to the sidelines or fell by the wayside. while Kevin Flynn, played by Jeff Bridges, is the only legacy character to appear in “Ares.” The film mentions Garrett Hedlund’s Sam Flynn and Olivia Wilde’s Quorra, suggesting they may appear in a future sequel. Then there are the characters that aren’t even mentioned, Chief among them is Alan Bradley, played by Bruce Boxleitner, who also played Tron in the first two films.. While a “Tron” movie without Tron seems egregious to fans of the series, the most baffling omission for general audiences is the absence of Cillian Murphy, who briefly appeared in “Legacy” as Ed Dillinger Jr., Dillinger’s son in the first film, played by David Warner.

Murphy’s Dillinger Jr. was intended. Blatantly intended to serve as a setup for a future sequel, and while the Dillinger family are indeed ‘Ares’ antagonists, Junior is nowhere to be seen or mentioned. Instead, Evan Peters plays Julian, Ed’s grandson. So, even though “Ares” doesn’t outright kill or attack Ed Jr., he definitely wants you to forget about him.

Murphy only appears as Ed Dillinger Jr. in one scene during the first half hour of “Tron: Legacy,” but implications of Murphy’s presence linger as the mid-credits reveal. After all, David Warner was the main villain in the first “Tron” movie, with Warner not only portraying Dillinger Sr. but also the Sark software and the voice of the Master Control software, implying that Dillinger’s corporate evil has infected what was built to be a free and open computer system. So, all of that, coupled with Dillinger Sr. being the guy who literally stole ENCOM from its rightful founders, helped suggest that his son might have some nefarious plans up his sleeve. There is also the fact that Murphy is not known for his engraving work as a gravestone either.

Plans for the role of Dillinger Jr. In the originally proposed “Tron 3”. It was also hinted at in the “Tron: Legacy” special features, which included New short film called “Tron: The Next Day”. One of the Easter eggs found in the short film’s menu showed Dillinger Jr. talking to a new MCP (voiced by Warner), who he refers to as “Dad”. This means that Murphy will not be returning as Dillinger Jr. Not only will Warner be back, as MCP and Dillinger Sr. will be back. A role in the next movie. Knowing all this makes some of the choices in “Ares” make more sense, as instead of Dillinger Jr. and his father, we get Julian and his mother, Dillinger’s daughter Elizabeth (Gillian Anderson).

In the mid-credits scene of “Ares”, Julian is transported to the Dillinger Systems network, where he encounters a disk that appears to transform him into a copy of Sark. The family rivalry between the Dillingers and Flynns was clearly always intended to be a mainstay of “Tron 3,” which makes it odd that Flynn isn’t a major character in the film. “Ares” changes this Shakespearean plot to a more professional rivalry between Dillinger Systems and ENCOM, which has less emotional resonance in the sequel. Apparently, Murphy’s Dillinger Jr. was supposed to be included. In “Ares”, according to some early character details, but that has obviously changed.

Although “Tron: Ares” rewrites what was originally intended to be the story of Ed Dillinger Jr. In a third “Tron” movie, however, he does not recast or reshape the character. Although Junior is never mentioned in the film, his absence allows for the possibility of Murphy returning in a future installment. Given how involved Julian and Elizabeth are in Ares, Junior’s absence doesn’t leave a huge gap, but it does raise a number of questions. Does Junior’s whereabouts have anything to do with Sam and Cora’s mysterious location? Also, one of the main themes of “Ares” involves new ENCOM COO Eve Kim (Greta Lee) discovering that her late sister has been secretly trying to find Flynn’s permanence code, so there’s some precedent for secret missions. There’s also the fact that Junior was an ENCOM employee when we last saw him; Maybe the twist is that he’s not growing up to follow in his father’s footsteps, and is actually fighting for the users, so to speak?

The most pressing question when it comes to theorizing about Junior’s return is whether “The Day After” is still canon. Sure, the series could easily ignore it, as it’s just a DVD supplement. However, Junior being secretly out there somewhere, and finding a way to resurrect his father, compares well with the plot of “Legacy,” and it also dovetails with the story of Eve and the AI ​​version of her sister, Tess (Selene Yun). If true, it could also set up a neat family rivalry within the Dillinger lineage, where Sark-descendant Julian could go up against his uncle and grandfather for control of the network.

Or perhaps the revelation is that Dillinger Sr. He is the ultimate ghost in the machine, an anti-Flynn who seeks to overwrite the code of everything in the system, starting with his family. However, we need look no further than “Ares” himself, bringing Kevin Flynn back from digital oblivion, to realize that there are a myriad of ways Murphy’s Dillinger Jr. could return. to “Tron”. Unless there’s another decade and change between movies, I’d be willing to bet that the Tron story doesn’t end with Ed Dillinger Jr. after.