Ares’ Enlists Nine Inch Nails for Score

Nine Inch Nails, the band headlined by musician Trent Reznor, is composing the score for Tron: Ares, Disney announced Friday at D23.

The reveal occurred during a first-look at the sci-fi movie that is being headlined by Jared Leto and directed by Joachim Ronning.

And featured some snippets of the score work done so far. The previous installment, Tron: Legacy, had a genre-defining score from Daft Punk, so when it came to the new movie, the bar is set high.

Reznor created NIN in the late 1980s as an industrial hard rock band even though for the albums, it was the Reznor himself who was composing and playing the instruments. However, when NIN toured, the frontman assembled members who rotated in and out. The band was hugely influential in the 1990s and racked up numerous Grammy nominations and a couple of wins for songs “Wish” and “Happiness in Slavery.”

Reznor moved into film scoring in 2010 when he teamed up with Atticus Ross for David Fincher’s The Social Network. The kicked off a pairing that has lasted through numerous Fincher movies. The duo’s most recent output included composing for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Challengers.

Ross became an official NIN member in 2016.

When the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020, it listed six current and former members – Ross, Robin Finck, Chris Vrenna, Danny Lohner, Ilan Rubin, and Allessandro Cortini.

“Technology and AI is omnipresent in our of our lives,” said Jeff Bridges, one of the stars of the original 1982 movie who returns for this installment. “What a perfect time to revisit this world. Or, have this world visit us, because that’s what happens in this movie.”

After an appearance by cast members Jared Leto, Evan peters, and Greta Lee, some mind-bending footage was shown. After that, a red laser revealed the iconic NIN logo, to screams from the crowd. Doors opened on stage to reveal two figures, Reznor and Ross.