Tron 3 filming has officially begun, according to director Joachim Rønning, who has directed films such as Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. He made the announcement on Instagram, revealing a picture of a set chair and the movie's clapperboard, displaying the styled Tr3n logo.
Filming was supposed to start this past summer, but the WGA and SAG-AFTRA tandem strikes caused a delay.
Now, Deadline Hollywood has confirmed that Gillian Anderson (X-Files, Sex Education) has joined the cast in a mystery role.
Disney isn't disclosing any information about the plot, but Deadline was able to verify that Jared Leto (Morbius, Suicide Squad) is playing Ares, a character who managed to escape from the Grid and enter the real world.
As you may remember, in the climactic scene of Tron: Legacy, Olivia Wilde's character Quorra became the first computer algorithm to break free from the Grid, joining Garrett Hedlund's Sam Flynn in the outside world. Ares appears to be the second character in the franchise to make this same transition.
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.
Over the years, a sequel to 2010's Tron: Legacy has been floated by Disney on several occassions, with Joseph Kosinski originally aiming to return. However, after several starts and stops, he ultimately departed the project. Pre-production actually got underway in Vancouver back in 2015, before Disney pulled the plug due to budget concerns.
In 2016, Disney then hired Garth Davis to direct the pic, with Jesse Wigutow writing the script. Cost-related script changes and scheduling conflicts reportedly led to Kosinski's departure.
However, Davis also departed the project, with Rønning stepping in to replace him.
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).