SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Grid took over Comic-Con on Friday, bringing the stars of the new “Tron: Ares” films to unveil footage and reveal the story behind the franchise's third movie.
The film stars Jared Leto, Jeff Bridges, Greta Lee and Jodie Turner-Smith as the story brings the virtual environment of the Grid, complete with light cylces, into the real world.
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The Comic-Con convention floor is pictured during the 2025 Comic-Con International Preview Night on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Joachim Ronning, from left, Jared Leto, and Jeff Bridges attend a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Jeff Bridges, from left, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Evan Peters attends a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Jared Leto, from left, Jeff Bridges, and Greta Lee attend a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Writer Steven Lisberger, from left, Jared Leto, and Jeff Bridges attend a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
A person dressed in costume attends a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
The Comic-Con convention floor is pictured during the 2025 Comic-Con International Preview Night on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Joachim Ronning, from left, Jared Leto, and Jeff Bridges attend a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Disney showed off several minutes of footage, including a light cycle chase scene in the real world and another in the red-hued Grid. Propelling the onscreen action is a propulsive Nine Inch Nails soundtrack.
“It’s fun to see it on the big screen for the first time,” said director Joachim Rønning.
Disney turned the Hall H panel into a spectacle, with red lasers filling the room and characters in suits with red lights entering the massive hall.
Asked what excited her about joining the “Tron” franchise, Lee responded: “I just wanted to ride a light cycle.”
Leto spoke affectionately about the original saying: “This movie just grabbed a hold of me and took me to a place that I'd never been before. It kind of rattled my imagination and it kind of showed me what was possible in the world.”
He praised Bridges and Steven Lisberger, who created “Tron” and directed the 1982 original. Lisberger attended Friday's panel and laid out his case for why the franchise remains relevant.
“My feeling about ‘Tron’ is that the most important thing is we kick this technology around artistically before it kicks us around,” Lisberger said.
“I am weary about hearing all the grim news about the future,” he said, and the way he thinks it can be avoided is to “inspire young people what can be done with this technology.”
Friday's panel ended with the premiere of the music video for "As Alive as You Need Me to Be," the first Nine Inch Nails song from the soundtrack.
“Tron” has never been in the top tier of sci-fi franchises. The original 1982 film starring Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a man sucked into a computer vortex known as the Grid, was admired for its ground-breaking concept and effects, and was a modest hit with moderately good reviews.
Perhaps more importantly, it won a cult following and has been maintained enough in cultural memory to remain a valuable property for Disney.
The 2010 film “Tron: Legacy,” starring Bridges and Garrett Hedlund, made more than $400 million globally. A TV show that followed, “Tron: Uprising,” lasted just one season.
Rønning has helmed other Disney franchise films: 2017’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” and 2019’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.” The Norweigan director said he was interested because he dreamed about making a sci-fi film and enjoyed the twist of “Ares” bringing the Grid into the real world.
AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.
The Comic-Con convention floor is pictured during the 2025 Comic-Con International Preview Night on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Joachim Ronning, from left, Jared Leto, and Jeff Bridges attend a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Jeff Bridges, from left, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Evan Peters attends a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Jared Leto, from left, Jeff Bridges, and Greta Lee attend a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
Writer Steven Lisberger, from left, Jared Leto, and Jeff Bridges attend a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
A person dressed in costume attends a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
The Comic-Con convention floor is pictured during the 2025 Comic-Con International Preview Night on Wednesday, July 23, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Joachim Ronning, from left, Jared Leto, and Jeff Bridges attend a panel for "Tron: Ares" during Comic-Con International on Friday, July 25, 2025, in San Diego. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
HAVANA (AP) — Trumpets and drums played solemnly at Havana's airport Thursday as white-gloved Cuban soldiers marched out of a plane carrying urns with remains of the 32 Cuban officers killed during a stunning U.S. attack on Venezuela.
Nearby, thousands of Cubans lined one of Havana’s most iconic streets to await the bodies as the island remained under threat by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The soldiers' shoes clacked as they marched stiff-legged into the headquarters of the Ministry of the Armed Forces and placed the urns on a long table next to the pictures of those killed. Tens of thousands of people paid their respects, saluting the urns or holding their hand over their heart, many of them drenched from standing outside in a heavy downpour.
Thursday’s mass funeral was only one of a handful that the Cuban government has organized over the past half-century.
The soldiers were part of the security detail of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during the Jan. 3 raid on his residence to seize the former leader and bring him to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges.
State television also showed images of more than a dozen people it said were wounded combatants from the raid, accompanied by Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez after arriving Wednesday night from Venezuela. Some were in wheelchairs.
Tensions between Cuba and the U.S. have spiked, with Trump recently demanding that the Caribbean country make a deal with him before it is “too late.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
Trump also has said that Cuba will no longer live off Venezuela's money and oil. Experts warn that the abrupt end of oil shipments could be catastrophic for Cuba, which is already struggling with serious blackouts and a crumbling power grid.
Officials unfurled a massive flag at Havana's airport as President Miguel Díaz-Canel, clad in military garb, stood silent next to former President Raúl Castro, with what appeared to be the relatives of those killed looking on nearby.
Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas called the slain soldiers “heroes” of an anti-imperialist struggle spanning both Cuba and Venezuela. In an apparent reference to the U.S., he said the “enemy” speaks of “high-precision operations, of troops, of elites, of supremacy.
“We, on the other hand, speak of faces, of families who have lost a father, a son, a husband, a brother,” Álvarez said.
The events demonstrate that “imperialism may possess more sophisticated weapons; it may have immense material wealth; it may buy the minds of the wavering; but there is one thing it will never be able to buy: the dignity of the Cuban people,” he said.
Carmen Gómez, a 58-year-old industrial designer, was among the thousands of Cubans who lined a street where motorcycles and military vehicles thundered by with the remains of those killed.
“They are people willing to defend their principles and values, and we must pay tribute to them,” Gómez said, adding that she hopes no one invades her country. “It’s because of the sense of patriotism that Cubans have, and that will always unite us.”
The 32 military personnel ranged in age from 26 to 60 and were part of protection agreements between the two countries.
Officials in Cuba have said they expect a massive demonstration Friday across from the U.S. Embassy to protest the deaths.
“People are upset and hurt ... many do believe that the dead are martyrs” of a historic struggle against the United States, analyst and former diplomat Carlos Alzugaray told The Associated Press.
In October 1976, then-President Fidel Castro led a massive demonstration to bid farewell to the 73 people killed in the bombing of a civilian flight financed by anti-revolutionary leaders in the U.S. Most of the victims were Cuban athletes.
In December 1989, officials organized a ceremony to honor the more than 2,000 Cuban combatants who died in Angola during Cuba’s participation in a war that defeated the South African army.
In October 1997, memorial services were held following the arrival of the remains of guerrilla commander Ernesto “Che” Guevara and six of his comrades, who died in 1967.
The latest mass burial is critical to honor those slain, said José Luis Piñeiro, a 60-year-old doctor who lived for four years in Venezuela.
“I don’t think Trump is crazy enough to come and enter a country like this, ours, and if he does, he’s going to have to take an aspirin or some painkiller to avoid the headache he’s going to get,” Piñeiro said. “These were 32 heroes who fought him. Can you imagine an entire nation? He’s going to lose.”
The remains arrived a day after the U.S. announced $3 million in additional aid to help the island recover from the catastrophic Hurricane Melissa. The first flight took off on Wednesday, and a second flight was scheduled for Friday. A commercial vessel also will deliver food and other supplies.
Cuba had said on Wednesday that any contributions will be channeled through the government.
But U.S. State Department foreign assistance official Jeremy Lewin said Thursday that the U.S. was working with Cuba’s Catholic Church to distribute aid, as part of Washington's efforts to give assistance directly to the Cuban people.
“There’s nothing political about cans of tuna and rice and beans and pasta,” he said Thursday, warning that the Cuban government should not intervene or divert supplies. “We will be watching, and we will hold them accountable.”
Lewin said the Cuban government has a choice to: “Step down or better provide towards people.” Lewin added that “if there was no regime,” the U.S. would provide “billions and billions of dollars” in assistance, as well as investment and development: “That’s what lies on the other side of the regime for the Cuban people.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said the U.S. government was “exploiting what appears to be a humanitarian gesture for opportunistic and politically manipulative purposes.”
Coto contributed from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
People line up outside the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces where the remains are on display of the Cuban officers who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured President Nicolas Maduro, as it sprinkles rain in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Military members line up outside the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces where the urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured President Nicolas Maduro, are on display in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Military members pay their last respects to Cuban officers who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, at the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces where the urns containing the remains are displayed during a ceremony in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A motorcade transports urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, through Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Soldiers carry urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, at the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Adalberto Roque /Pool Photo via AP)
A motorcade transports urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, through Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
A motorcade transports urns containing the remains of Cuban officers, who were killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, through Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
People line the streets of Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, to watch the motorcade carrying urns containing the remains of Cuban officers killed during the U.S. operation in Venezuela that captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Workers fly the Cuban flag at half-staff at the Anti-Imperialist Tribune near the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Cuba, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in memory of Cubans who died two days before in Caracas, Venezuela during the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
