How To Watch 'Tron' Movies & TV Shows In Order
Tron is the franchise that just won't quit. The first film came out over 40 years ago in 1982 and didn’t receive a sequel until almost 30 years later. Then, the franchise, once again, went dormant for over a decade until 2025, when the third film was finally released. But between the films, there was an animated series and a few video games that are considered canon, making the Tron universe more vast than some fans might expect.
Watching the Tron franchise in release date order is probably the easiest way for casual fans to get acquainted with the world, but it might leave some confusing gaps. However, if you want to consume it that way, the watch order looks like this:
- Tron (1982)
- Tron: Legacy (2010)
- Tron: Uprising (2012-2013)
- Tron: Ares (2025)
Those wanting a more in-depth look into the franchise’s lore should consider chronological order, which places the animated series between the Tron franchise’s first two movies. Read on to discover how to watch the Tron franchise for its story and find out where all the movies and shows are available to watch on platforms like Disney+, Apple TV+, and more.
In the original Tron movie, Jeff Bridges plays Kevin Flynn, an arcade owner who used to be a game developer before his evil boss stole his ideas and fired him to cover it up. Flynn searches for evidence of the theft, but is unintentionally digitized and brought into the computer world (“The Grid”) he helped build. From there, he must survive the cutthroat society that’s evolved within the Grid and compete in a variety of challenges, like the always-iconic light cycle race.
If you love movies where you’re transported into the digital world of video games, like Ready Player One (2018) or Wreck-It Ralph (2012), then you’ll love Tron. It’s also a great choice for cinephiles who want to check out a movie that was, for the time, visually stunning and used some of the most cutting-edge CG technology of the time.
The animated series Tron: Uprising takes place between the first two movies and follows a rebellion inside The Grid. The backstory is that Clu, who was supposed to be a good program from the original movie, ended up betraying Flynn and took over the digital realm. Now, a group of programs fight for their freedom and for a better life in the Grid.
Uprising has a surprisingly robust voice cast, including Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Kate Mara, and Paul Reubens, among others. It’s a great series for anyone who loves a good story about rebellion against villainous forces, like Andor (2022) or Snowpiercer (2020). Hardcore fans will also want to play the 2010 video game Tron: Evolution because its story coincides with the events in Uprising.
Picking up 20 years after Tron, the sequel, Tron: Legacy, sees Kevin Flynn’s son Sam as a reckless young man who, while having good intentions, is completely lost in life. But a strange message leads Sam back to his dad’s old arcade, where he gets digitized into The Grid. Modern CGI really helps improve the film, and Tron: Legacy’s vibrant, neon colors make it an absolute visual spectacle.
Plus, you can’t talk about Tron: Legacy without mentioning its soundtrack by Daft Punk. The Grammy-nominated soundtrack went Platinum and charted in 22 countries across the globe, even topping out at #4 on the Billboard 200. If you love visually stunning movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), or movies with epic soundtracks like The Dark Knight (2008), this is the film for you.
After Tron: Legacy, the next canonical chapter in the saga is technically Tron: Identity, the 2023 video game that centers on an alternate Grid with a vastly more complex society because time moves differently on The Grid. To the programs in Identity, a thousand years have passed, but a shocking crime proves that their society is on shaky ground. The game’s 2025 sequel, Tron: Catalyst, reveals that the crime was just the setup for a fascist takeover of The Grid, and players must find a way to survive. If you want to follow the Tron franchise in its canonical release order, you'll need to play these games after watching Tron: Legacy and before you see Tron: Ares. However, you'll still be able to follow the franchise's movies without playing the games.
In Tron: Ares, a secret code exists that can allow programs from The Grid to enter the real world. Thanks to this technology, a digital soldier named Ares is brought into the world to do nefarious tasks for the evil Dillinger Systems corporation. But as we’ve seen in previous Tron films, programs develop their own personalities, so Ares isn’t the mindless robot his creators had hoped.
Ares stars Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, and Jeff Bridges, who, once again, reprises his role as Kevin Flynn. While the movie has received mixed reviews, it’s a sure bet for anyone who loves the neon-drenched visuals of the Tron universe, and anyone who likes movies where the real and digital worlds collide, like The Matrix (1999) and WarGames (1983).
