How real AI changed the creation of Tron: Ares [Exclusive]

Thematically, “Tron” was ahead of its time when it was released in 1982, anticipating the debates that plague us today regarding artificial intelligence, retaining our digital identity, data privacy and the growing influence of tech giants outside of the technology sector. More importantly, it was cinema’s first serious attempt to visualize the digital realm, then nicknamed “cyberspace”, but now probably more commonly referred to as the “metaverse”. Its wireframe landscapes and palette of black and neon may seem retro-futuristic kitsch, but the film’s visual language has proven remarkably enduring, inspiring countless imitators and earning its place as a landmark in the evolution of on-screen digital world-building.

And it worked — because the original “Tron,” and to some extent 2010’s “Tron: Legacy,” are films that personify the mysterious and sometimes confusing landscapes of technology, even if at the time the general public didn’t really have a clue how it worked.

Today, in 2025, when “Tron: Ares” hits theaters, it’s a time when babies figure out how to find their favorite show by clicking on app images on an iPad, and we have people with ChatGPT psychosis in full-fledged romantic relationships with AI companions. Reviews have been mixed about the effectiveness of “Tron: Ares,” and there has been plenty of discussion centered on Jared Leto’s apparent box office poison, but the fact that our collective understanding of technology has “caught up” with “Tron” has certainly complicated things, particularly when it comes to artificial intelligence. According to screenwriter Jesse Wigutow, this had a direct impact on how the Ares storyline took shape.

Jesse Wigutow has been on a journey with “Tron: Ares” for about 13 years, and even in that time, our relationship with AI has changed significantly. “When we started, there was this concept of ‘AI program with a very specific goal that challenged that goal,’ but at the time AI was very much in demand, but more in the research realm,” Wigutow tells me. “And I’m sure there were things that I wasn’t aware of at the time that were happening, but it wasn’t in the public sphere one way or another like it is today.” Researchers have been experimenting with AI as far back as the 1950s, but what the average person thinks of “AI” today is the generative technology that has emerged in the last five years or so.

“You’re talking about the idea of ​​people having full-fledged relationships with their AI companions, and that didn’t exist 13 years ago,” Wigutow says. “On one hand, we’ve had to kind of pursue the technology in a way that we really didn’t anticipate — or at least I didn’t anticipate, maybe some producers did — and the kind of explosive growth of it.” This meant that taking a program and posing it as something in the future no longer seemed like a possibility that something would exist maybe 50 years in the future, but rather something that seemed possible to exist three minutes in the future. “In some ways, I hope it makes the film and the character more accessible in a way that I don’t think we anticipated,” adds Wigutow.

The focal point of “Tron: Ares” is Jared Leto’s main character, a program master who questions his programming and wishes to rejoin the mortal land. If the story sounds familiar, that’s because stories about the humanization of robots and sentient technology have become very popular in recent years (e.g. the “AI girlfriend” trend), and these stories probably wouldn’t exist if the original “Tron” hadn’t already served as a model. When Wigutow was asked if this made things difficult when he was writing “Tron: Ares” because he now had to consider the number of films built from the source material he drew inspiration from, he told me it was a reality he couldn’t ignore.

“You want the best story, but these themes, these conversations are integral to development and questions of free will versus your genetic coding – in this case, programming – and where does the control ultimately come from? Who is in control? That’s certainly an idea,” he says. It’s also a fascinating direction to explore AI, much like the microbudgeting approach of Franklin Ritch’s “The Artifice Girl.”

“I think what really interested me the most, and was really more of a beacon and sort of a torch as we move forward in developing this topic, is what makes someone or something human? How do you define what that is, and could it be that artificial intelligence can teach us something about our own humanity and vice versa?” » adds Wigutow.

It’s up to the viewer to decide whether or not “Tron: Ares” succeeds in answering these questions. The film is currently playing in theaters around the world.