The Tron Twist That Made Gillian Anderson Say Yes to The X-Files

Gillian Anderson, forever Agent Scully in a lot of our brains, is back in sci-fi mode with Tron: Ares — and this one comes with a neat full-circle twist. The original 1982 Tron actually nudged her toward doing sci-fi in the first place, which makes her new role feel like closing a loop only the Grid could draw.

The Tron spark that lit the fuse

Anderson says she discovered the first Tron a bit later than most, but it stuck. Not the only factor, but one of the early sci-fi touchstones that made her even consider diving into the genre when she was starting out. Basically: young Gillian watches Tron, files it under this-could-be-my-thing, and years later, here we are.

Who she plays (and why she is stressed about it)

In Tron: Ares, Anderson is Elizabeth Dillinger — daughter of the original film’s Ed Dillinger — and she is in a serious power struggle with her son, Julian. He has been running their family company, Dillinger Systems, like a bull in a server room, pushing to pull advanced AI out of the digital world and into ours. Elizabeth’s read on her kid? She is scared of him. Specifically: scared of who he has turned into, what he might be capable of, and how much of that is on her.

'I am worried that my son is going to destroy planet Earth!'

As far as mother-son dynamics go, that is... a choice. Also, one of those juicy inside-baseball Tron nods: the Dillinger lineage has been a big deal since the beginning, so seeing the family drama evolve into an AI apocalypse worry feels very on-brand for this world.

The AI of it all

Anderson is not anti-AI — she points out the real good happening in science and medicine — but she also leans into the big, very current concern the movie plays with: when the wrong person is steering the tech, the endgame can look bleak. In other words, Tron: Ares is not just neon motorcycles and pretty circuits; it is poking the same bear Silicon Valley is wrestling with right now.

• Cast: Jared Leto and Greta Lee lead the film, with Gillian Anderson and Evan Peters co-starring.
• Anderson’s role: Elizabeth Dillinger, daughter of Ed Dillinger, clashing with her son Julian over his reckless push to unleash advanced AI in the real world at Dillinger Systems.
• What it is about: Humanity meets AI beings for the first time when an extremely sophisticated program named Ares crosses out of the digital world for a high-risk mission in ours.
• UK release: In cinemas from Friday 10 October.

If you grew up on Scully side-eying science gone wrong, seeing Anderson worry about an AI-fueled end of days in a Tron movie is oddly perfect. Full circle, circuit complete.