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Tron: 15 Years After Daft Punk, which artist is composing the score for the cult classic?
Disney has unveiled the first images from Tron: Ares, the third installment of its iconic saga launched in 1982. Fifteen years after Daft Punk, it’s the band Nine Inch Nails – composed of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – that is scoring the highly anticipated new chapter.
by La rédaction.
Nine Inch Nails takes up the torch, 15 years after Daft Punk
It’s an unexpected comeback that’s electrifying science fiction fans. Fifteen years after Daft Punk’s phenomenal soundtrack for Tron: Legacy (2010), it’s the duo Nine Inch Nails, made up of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who are now taking up the mantle and composing for Tron: Ares. Set to hit theaters on October 8, 2025, this third installment marks a turning point in Disney’s digital mythology.
Directed by Joachim Rønning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil), Tron: Ares continues its journey into the digital world. Here, Jared Leto plays Ares, an AI program thrust into the real world—a fascinating reversal of transhumanist logic, where the algorithm seeks to understand humanity. At his side: Greta Lee, Ryan Murphy’s favorite actor Evan Peters, the legendary Gillian Anderson, and Jeff Bridges, who is returning to the franchise.
Oscar winners for The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have carved out a distinct sonic identity, combining industrial textures, anxious pulses, and sepulchral ambient layers. Their sound fits perfectly with the darker, more introspective tone of Tron: Ares. The first teaser, featured in the trailer, evokes a kind of mechanical trance, somewhere between Aphex Twin and John Carpenter—a deconstructed, post-apocalyptic sonic matter.
Tron: Imagining the future since 1982
A true aesthetic anomaly, the original Tron, directed in 1982 by Steven Lisberger, was a pioneer in the use of computer-generated imagery, thrusting Jeff Bridges into an unprecedented virtual world where computer programs took on human form. Initially poorly received by critics—The New York Times described the film as “more technically captivating than narratively compelling”—Tron gradually gained cult status, standing at the crossroads of auteur cinema and video gaming.
It wasn’t until 2010 that Disney revived the franchise with Tron: Legacy, directed by Joseph Kosinski. Visually stunning, the film continued to polarize critics. Some praised it as a “hypnotic digital ballet” (Le Monde), while others lamented a script that was “as hollow as it was flashy” (The Guardian). But on one point, consensus was clear: Daft Punk’s soundtrack was sheer brilliance.
With Tron: Ares, Disney is doing more than continuing a saga—it’s questioning our relationship to artificial intelligence, to reality, and to digital memory. By entrusting the score to one of the most radical bands of the past thirty years, the studio signals a return to its roots: the fusion of aesthetic risk and metaphysical inquiry.
Tron: Ares by Joachim Rønning opens in theaters on October 8.
