Jodie Turner-Smith Joins TRON: Ares As The Unstoppable Force Athena, Says, "It's Not Easy To Wear Those Suits"

Jodie Turner-Smith is set to enthrall the audience as Athena, Ares' second in command in Disney's upcoming sci-fi, TRON: Ares. Imposing, calculated, officious, and driven solely by her programming to fulfil any directive without question, Athena is a member of an elite special forces unit of Programs created by Julian Dillinger and Dillinger Corporation. With incredible power and the inability to fear and doubt, Athena is a nearly unstoppable force.

Jodie was excited to play such a strong and singularly focused character who experiences her own journey of discovery. "Athena is hardcore, she's a badass, which is very cool to do, and very interesting. She really is taking on that directive to be this super soldier, but also there's a part of her deviating from the plan. There is an experience that all of these Programs are having - they are being made and remade, experiencing death, pain, war, seemingly expendable."

"I think it's always fun when a character represents more of the chaos," Jodie continues. "In her own way, Athena is the chaos that can come when nuance is unable to be interpreted. And that's Athena's struggle throughout the movie, interpreting nuance while she's having this experience that is changing her."

While Ares' experiences with humanity help him evolve down a path that explores what it means to be human, the opposite is true of Athena. "Athena's response to the world is going down a certain path," Jodie explains. "She's sticking to the programming. And she's very absolute on her journey to fulfill that. When you have that kind of absolutism, that also means that you might want to override what your programmer is telling you to do."

"Also, just in a mechanical sense, it's not easy to wear those suits," she adds with a laugh. "I applaud everyone."

Also starring Jared Leto, Greta Lee, Evan Peters, Hasan Minhaj, and Jeff Bridges, TRON: Ares releases in Indian theatres on 10th October 2025 in English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.