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As a sci-fi franchise, Disney’s Tron has had a difficult history. The first movie was released in 1982 and, despite becoming Disney’s highest-grossing live-action movie at the time, was still seen as a failure for the studio. It was the kind of movie that shaped kids’ imaginations (and later careers!), though, which would explain how 2010’s Tron: Legacy — another ambitious movie that, in its own way broke new ground in CGI (hi, de-aged Jeff Bridges, as creepy-looking as you were!) only to stumble at the box office. Curiously enough, Cameron Monaghan, who’s starring in next year’s Tron: Ares, thinks that this checkered past and the way the series continues irregularly is a plus for the franchise overall.

“I think I first saw the first Tron on a plane when I was younger. It was an international flight. I remember watching the original, and I thought it was from the '90s or something, because it was pretty amazing how a movie from that era could look that amazing, and utilizing computers the way they did,” Monaghan told Collider in a recent chat. “Then I went to the Tron: Legacy premiere when I was 16 years old, and had just done my first movie for Disney at the time. So, that was really cool getting to go to the El Capitan Theater in LA and seeing that on a big screen… And that's a movie that, I think, has now grown a cult fandom, in a similar way that the original Tron did as well, where people thought it was very technologically cool but it's continued to grow.”

He continued, “I like that those movies have a number of years of separation between them. They don't come out very often, and every time they do, they show a new era of technology and filmmaking.”

When it comes to next year’s Tron: Ares, Monaghan said, “I think this one, in a very similar way [to Tron: Legacy], is going to really push forward what can be done, from a visual perspective… I would sometimes even come in on days I wasn’t working, because that set was really amazing. A lot of the practical sets were pretty phenomenal, and I would love to go look at those as well.”

Tron: Ares is set for release in October 2025. Monaghan will appear alongside a fascinating cast that also includes Evan Peters, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jared Leto, and Gillian Anderson.

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