Garrett Hedlund and Cillian Murphy aren’t logging back in for Tron: Ares, and now we know why. Both Hedlund and Murphy starred in the last entry of the sci-fi franchise, Tron: Legacy, as Kevin Flynn’s son Sam and the son of original Tron antagonist Ed Dillinger, respectively, but neither will be in Tron: Ares when it premieres on October 10.

That’s according to Tron: Ares director Joachim Rønning in an interview with Collider. Instead, a primarily new cast headlines Tron: Ares, including Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, Jodie Turner-Smith, Arturo Castro, Cameron Monaghan, and Gillian Anderson, with franchise staple Jeff Bridges back once again as Kevin Flynn.

The reason, according to Rønning, for Hedlund and Murphy’s absence is a combination of things, but as he told Collider, it came down to what worked best for the story:

“These things are not only creative choices; sometimes actors don’t want to be in it anymore. There are different ways of looking at that, but I think the story fell into a place where we felt that we didn’t need the old characters to be front and centre. We wanted to take this into a new direction while, at the same time, honoring the universe that we’re in.”

What The Departing Characters Mean For Tron: Ares’ Plot

Tron: Ares is billed as a new story, not a direct sequel to Tron: Legacy, but as Rønning further elaborated, he found it best for the story not to just shoehorn in the previous characters just because that’s what fans may expect.

“We’re telling a story that’s 14 years later, and the most important thing is that we tell this new story in a way that works. To just throw cameos in, where it’s a parade of people that we love from this franchise, I just feel like it’s fan service that doesn’t serve the story. But we are definitely focused on ways to surprise the audience.”

Specifically, this new story focuses on Jared Leto’s Ares, an advanced digital program that is sent into the real world to complete a perilous task. So, for the first time in the Tron franchise, the digital characters are coming out into the real world.

Even though Murphy’s Dillinger won’t be involved in Tron: Ares, the family is still causing problems for the heroes, with Peters playing the new character Julian Dillinger.

Our Take On Hedlund And Murphy Not Appearing In Tron: Ares

While I don’t doubt Rønning is telling the truth about not wanting to just shove Hedlund’s Sam Flynn and Murphy’s Edward Dillinger into the movie without cause, another part of his quote stuck out to me: “[S]ometimes actors don’t want to be in it anymore.“

It could be inferred that Hedlund and Murphy turned down reprising their characters, but the director doesn’t outright confirm it. Even if that’s the case, it doesn’t mean it had anything to do with the potential for Tron: Ares to be good or not.

Murphy is in the middle of the best stretch of his career, including his Best Actor Oscar for Oppenheimer and reprising Peaky Blinder‘s Tommy Shelby in The Immortal Man. Hedlund, meanwhile, stars in the hit Paramount Plus series Tulsa King. Perhaps both just decided they preferred these projects rather than reprising characters they played once 15 years ago.

And if we’re being honest, the must-haves of Tron are Jeff Bridges and the action scenes. As previewed in our Tron: Ares set visit, both of those are going to be present in the movie when it premieres in movie theaters October 10.

Source: Collider