De-aging technology has come a long way over the last decade, but it’s still very inconsistent and far from being perfected. Captain Marvel‘s younger Nick Fury was almost flawless and Captain America: Civil War‘s youthful Tony Stark wasn’t bad, but Temuera Morrison looked like a wax model of himself in Aquaman‘s prologue, while Gemini Man‘s Junior was perfectly acceptable until he was required to do anything other than remain perfectly still.
The most egregious example that definitively proved the tech wasn’t ready to become an integral part of blockbuster filmmaking, though, came in Tron: Legacy, where a great deal of the narrative focused on a de-aged Jeff Bridges as the villainous Clu. As a sci-fi epic set in a digital world, you can just about let it slide without having the distracting character ruin your immersion in the movie, but at some points, he was pretty painful to look at.
Luckily, the older and grizzled Bridges we all know and love merged with his digital self during Legacy‘s conclusion to destroy both versions of Kevin Flynn, but insider Daniel Richtman now claims that the Academy Award winner is being eyed to return for Tron: Ares, which will star Jared Leto in the lead role and could be positioned as the first installment in a brand new trilogy.
Of course, Bridges is currently battling some pretty serious health issues, so his availability may understandably be dependent on how he’s feeling. Still, longtime fans would no doubt love to see the 70 year-old return for a new adventure in the world of Tron, especially when the premise means it wouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a scenario where Flynn has survived the events of Legacy.