Tron: Ares Features A Number Of Franchise Call Backs, But There Is One Missing That Bugs Me

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Be warned: this article contains minor spoilers for the movie *Tron: Ares*. If you haven’t seen it yet, you might want to avoid reading further!

If *Tron 3* had been made shortly after *Tron: Legacy*, it likely would have continued the story from that film. Instead of the completely new story and characters planned for *Tron: Ares*, it probably would have shown Garrett Hedlund as Sam Flynn running ENCOM and the world adjusting to the existence of Quorra, the first digital being living in the real world.

Following the mixed response to *Tron: Legacy* and the years that have passed, the *Tron* story has taken a new path. To be fair, the upcoming 2025 film, *Tron: Ares*, tries to connect things back to what came before. The movie opens with a montage of news reports explaining that Sam Flynn stepped down from his role at ENCOM, and a quick scene at the end hints that Quorra is still out there, somewhere in hiding. The film also revisits familiar places like Flynn’s Arcade and the original digital grid, letting us know what’s happened to them. However, one important question is left unanswered, and it’s unclear why: what ever became of Edward Dillinger Jr.?

Cillian Murphy played the character in the first part of *Tron: Legacy*. He’s the son of Edward Dillinger from the original *Tron* and leads the software design team at ENCOM. While he doesn’t have a major impact on the story, his appearance cleverly connects the two films and keeps the Dillinger family name relevant. *Tron: Ares* continues this connection by featuring another Dillinger – Evan Peters as Julian – as the villain. However, the movie surprisingly acts as if Cillian Murphy’s character, Edward Dillinger Jr., never existed.

More Tron: Ares!

While ‘Tron: Ares’ might not be a top contender for the year’s best film, there’s one scene that makes it worth experiencing in a movie theater. The film also reveals Jared Leto’s lifelong passion for the ‘Tron’ franchise and how it profoundly impacted him.

The film heavily features the Dillinger family – Julian is the son of Elisabeth, who is the daughter of Edward, and they even create a competing company called Dillinger Systems to challenge ENCOM. However, despite the movie taking time to detail the family’s history with the tech world, it completely omits any mention of Elisabeth’s brother, Julian’s uncle. As a long-time fan of the series, this omission feels particularly strange.

I understand Cillian Murphy might not have been available or willing to return, but completely removing his character from the story feels odd. They could have simply mentioned him occasionally, like they did with Sam and Quorra, or even recast the role – though I don’t want to suggest anyone lose work, it would have been easy to make Julian Ed Jr.’s son. Instead, the movie acts like he never existed, which is confusing for fans like me and leaves us questioning the reasoning behind that choice.

I have to say, while there are a few odd decisions in *Tron: Ares* (and honestly, as I mentioned in my review, the casting of Jared Leto as a lead doesn’t really work), this one really stuck out to me as a particularly strange choice.

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2025-10-16 15:08