The third entry in Disney’s “Tron” series hits theaters nationwide on October 10, 2025. In celebration of the new movie, a new Tron: Ares overlay has come to the ride Tron: Lightcycle / Run in The Magic Kingdom Park at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.
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Posted on Walt Disney World’s Instagram is the official announcement: “Tron: Ares is taking control. Starting today, TRON Lightcycle / Run presented by Enterprise at #MagicKingdom Park in #WaltDisneyWorld will feature movie inspired lighting and reality-bending music from Nine Inch Nails. Tron: Ares in theaters October 10th.”
This same overlay is coming to Shanghai Disney’s Tron attraction.
What Is Tron: Ares? What Is This Ride Overlay?
Tron: Ares is the third entry into the long running Tron movie series: a storyline that takes humans and inserts them into the digital world of computers known as “The Grid.”
This latest entry sees Jared Leto in the titular role of “Ares” — a character built from AI who comes from the grid into our world. Not much is yet known about the plot, but what has fans most excited is the incorporation of music from Nine Inch Nails.
Tron Lightcycle Run bikes with red wheels for Tron: Ares – Photo Credit: Follow The Bradley’s Fun
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While traditionally the Tron movies have highlighted the neon like glow of blues and yellows, Tron: Ares will feature a very red tone. The Tron: Light Cycle Run overlay incorporates the red hues into the ride, along with movie soundtrack music provided by Nine Inch Nails, with a storyline for the ride that “Master Control” has taken over.
Basically, this is a relatively simple change in lighting, sound, and projections that could be done by Disney “on the cheap.”
Tron: A Long Running Franchise Lacking Content
The original movie, Tron, starring a young Jeff Bridges, first hit theaters all the way back on July 9, 1982, and was given accolades for being the very first movie to extensively use computer generated images (what we now commonly refer to as CGI) for the majority of the film’s runtime.
However, it’s first sequel would take decades to come out.
Tron Lightcycle Run via TPMvids YouTube
Tron: Legacy, the sequel to Tron, wouldn’t land at the box office until December 17, 2010 — nearly 30 years after Tron. It received a lukewarm reception.
While CGI had come a long way, the “de aging” effect they used to turn Jeff Bridges back into his much younger self was highly panned for creating an “uncanny valley” result that just didn’t quite look real. Still, Tron had birthed a few video game offshoots, and the fan favorite “Light Cycles” sequence.
Disney built off that excitement and created a Tron Light Cycle roller coaster attraction for it’s Shanghai Park. That ride opened with the park on June 16, 2016.
Disney’s Coaster Competition – A Losing Battle
While Tron pits Lightcycles in a fierce, head-to-head race with each other, Orlando has a much bigger competition: the “coaster wars.”
Though, to be honest there is not much of a battle here. SeaWorld Orlando now touts eight roller coasters, including a stand up coaster in “Pipeline,” as well as coaster enthusiast favorites such as “Mako” and “Manta.”
Bikes on Tron Lightcycle Run with red wheels for Tron: Ares – Photo Credit: Follow The Bradley’s Fun
Over at Universal Islands of Adventure thrills are experienced on “The Incredible Hulk” coaster, “Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure,” and the ultra high adrenaline rush of “Velocicoaster.”
Disney’s efforts on the coaster front have never come close to being able to match their competition, and a cheap overlay doesn’t really help.
A Decent Overlay – Or Just Another Example of “Minimum Effort” by Disney?
The Tron Lightcycle / Run coaster in Magic Kingdom is a “clone” of the Shanghai attraction. It was announced at Disney’s D23 event in 2017, just a year after the Tron coaster opened in Shanghai.
Construction began in February 2018, to be completed and opened by October 2021 for the Magic Kingdom’s 50th Anniversary.
That didn’t happen.
Tron Lightcycle Run via TPMvids YouTube
Even with the cost cutting measure of this being a design duplicate of the Shanghai attraction, construction delays set the opening all the way back another two years to 2023, when it finally opened in April in the Tomorrowland section of the park.
While it creates a somewhat “futuristic” external esthetic, with a ride time of barely over 60 seconds it leaves much to be desired, especially by roller coaster enthusiasts. While the current overlay may present a tie in marketing opportunity for Disney, it’s honestly a fairly cheap alternative to actually improving the ride.
Changes in lighting and music / soundtrack for the ride come at very little, if any monetary cost, but give Disney the opportunity to tout “an exciting change!”
A sign noting that Tron Lightcycle Run is doing a Tron: Ares special edition – Photo Credit: Follow The Bradley’s Fun
It feels like a “this will do for now” solution to a problem that’s not easily going away.
Does this new Tron: Ares overlay get you excited? Are you interested in the new Tron movie entry with Jared Leto? Does this motivate you to visit the Magic Kingdom, or if traveling would you choose a better coaster park? Sound off! Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
