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The Tron franchise has always been a fever dream of light, sound, and identity — a digital world pulsing with human questions. More than a decade after Tron: Legacy made Daft Punk’s synths the heartbeat of cyber cinema, Disney is returning to the grid — and this time, it’s breaking out of it. Tron: Ares, directed by Joachim Rønning (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) and led by Jared Leto, promises to push the series into new territory. Among the powerful new figures stepping into this electrified universe is Jodie Turner-Smith — and in true Jodie fashion, she’s bringing both style and soul.

When City Times sat down with her to talk about the upcoming film over Zoom, she lit up at the mere mention of Tron. “I was a fan of the franchise before the film,” she said. “Tron: Legacy, that was my movie — it had such a distinct and incredible look and feel and sound with that Daft Punk soundtrack. And it was just, it was cool, you know. Tron was already in my orbit. So when this came along, I was thrilled at the opportunity to step into something that has such an incredible and profound legacy.”

It’s the kind of cinematic world that seems tailor-made for Jodie Turner-Smith — sleek, subversive, and visually charged. But Tron: Ares, out October 9 in UAE cinemas, isn’t just another return to the digital frontier. It’s a story that mirrors our moment, as we grapple with artificial intelligence, empathy, and the consequences of humanity and technology colliding.

“We weren’t just going back into the grid,” she explained. “We were coming out of the grid. And it’s having a conversation that is so relevant for right now — artificial intelligence, how we use it, what is going to happen with it. And I loved that. I loved the conversation the movie was having. And I love also the hopeful nature of it — that if we keep things human-centred, we can change the world for good, potentially.”

That optimism — rare in a genre that often paints technology as the villain — gives Tron: Ares its emotional pulse. And Turner-Smith’s character, Athena, stands right at the crossroads of those ideas. She’s part chaos, part conviction; a program that values creation over compassion. “I always looked at Athena as a character that was having a parallel experience to Ares,” she said. “While he goes into a path of compassion and empathy for human life, Athena was also having an experience. But it just took her in a different direction of continuing to not value human life and to feel that it was more important to preserve programs and what they were building.”

She pauses for a beat before continuing, “She gets to be this chaos agent in the movie."

And that, for Jodie as an actor, was very attractive. She's said on multiple occassions, "I’m in my villain era. And it was really fun to play that."

If you’ve followed her recent run, you know she means it. From Murder Mystery 2’s Countess Sekou to the Dragon Queen in Bad Monkey, Turner-Smith has found a thrilling rhythm in characters that are layered, unpredictable, and occasionally menacing. But what’s refreshing is how she views these “villainous” roles not as evil, but as emotionally complex. “For me, I still just feel like I’m just only beginning, and the world is my oyster, and I want to do everything,” she said. “I want to play villains. I want to play heroes. I think the emotional experience of a human being is so varied. No villain would ever class themselves really as a villain. There’s always justification for why they’re doing what they do. And I think that it’s really fun to get to play all of those energies and levels and spaces — and I want to do it all.”

And playing Athena was the beautiful cherry on top of the cake in this journey so far.

Inside Tron: Ares, the spectacle is as massive as you’d imagine — but Turner-Smith says it wasn’t all digital trickery. “We had a lot of practical sets, which made it so freaking cool,” she laughed. “A lot of this was shot in downtown Vancouver. So we are interacting with the actual world. Even just this imagining, this envisioning of the light cycle — what it would look like if it was printed into the real world — it was so cool, getting to ride on it.”

She talks about being surrounded by towering “volume screens,” intricate props, and massive builds that made every set feel alive. Her co-star Greta Lee, who plays Eve Kim in the film, has been saying that each set felt like a little theme park.

Jodie continues, “There was very little for me, at least in my portion, of having to imagine something that wasn’t there, because I got to actually interact with things that were there.”

And yes, she admits she didn’t sneak home any souvenirs — though she jokingly puts Disney on notice: “I didn’t take home any props. But Disney, if you’re watching this and want to send me some…”

Physically, Tron: Ares was demanding, too. The actor recalls long hours in armour-heavy costumes, swinging staffs and discs in elaborate fight sequences. “Doing those battle scenes while wearing all of that costume — running, jumping, swinging — it was pretty challenging,” she said. “I would always get excited whenever I got to wear the motion capture suit, because it meant I didn’t have all that armour on.”

Despite all the physical and technical intensity, Turner-Smith radiates ease when she talks about her career. Her trajectory, from breakout turns in Queen & Slim and Without Remorse to big-studio projects, feels like she is guided by curiosity.

Did you know? She is the voice of GPS in Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie's A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.

“I just want to play so many different kinds of people,” she said. “I’m glad you couldn’t pinpoint a type for me out of any of these characters I play. I feel like I play so many different kinds of people, and I want to keep doing that.”

So where does Jodie Turner-Smith fit in a world of glowing circuits and AI rebellion? Somewhere between chaos and compassion, probably — a place she seems to thrive in. And while Tron: Ares might look like a dark, high-tech spectacle, she brings something distinctly human to it. After all, preserving oneself is human, too.

Before we wrapped, I asked her about her real-life aesthetic — away from the sleek neon of Tron. She smiled, almost mischievously. “Fun,” she said. “I’m having fun.”

And in that moment, it’s clear that Jodie Turner-Smith is exactly where she’s meant to be; on the grid or off it.