Tonight at 9:30PM, the Disney Channel will be showing a special “sneak preview” of the new animated series TRON: Uprising. The series premiere is written and produced by Once Upon A Time’s Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and the show has an all-star voice cast including Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, Lance Henriksen, and Paul Reubens. Bruce Boxleitner reprises his role as Tron.
In Uprising, the legend of Tron is expanded when we meet a young man named Beck, voiced by Elijah Wood, who is expected to be the hero that could pick up where Tron left off. Why does he do what he does? We spoke with Elijah Wood last weekend to find out what makes Beck tick. Be warned, there are spoilers for tonight’s premiere episode within, although they should not ruin your enjoyment of the show.
“What makes a vigilante? A friend of his is derezzed, so that’ll do it,” Wood says to explain Beck’s motivations. “I think it’s a combination of seeing that Clu and Tessler are clearly going to ruin the freedom of the people of the Grid. His life and his friends’ lives, and the lives of all are being put at risk. So I think it’s that… Bodhi being derezzed, and feeling like he’s helpless,” he continues.
“That kind of kicks something off in his mind about taking a stand. He does this very cavalier thing. He cuts the head off of the statue, and throws a bomb in it, and it explodes… and he gets away with it, basically. But I don’t think that he’s even really thinking or projecting into the future about what that could potentially mean. It’s an act of defiance. It’s an act of rebellion that ultimately leads him face to face with Tron, who then says to him ‘I’ve seen what you’ve done, and you have the makings to be my successor. Which initially, Beck doesn’t believe. In his mind, he’s a mechanic; he’s an everyday individual. He has relatively special abilities as a mechanic, and as a light cycle rider, and as someone who can play disc games well, but certainly no Tron. But he hears what Tron has to say, and hears his belief, and kind of takes the mantle, albeit reluctantly, initially. That’s kind of the birth of the hero. That’s how all heroes, to a certain degree… the ones who at least don’t have super powers… are created. Something within them that feels like something needs to change. They take these steps that make them the hero that they become,” he explains.
It could be that background that ignites Tron’s interest in this young hero. “Tron’s interest in Beck is also that Beck can not only be a singular hero, but the idea that he can motivate others to fight as well. There is a resistance behind him, that he can inspire others to fight for their freedoms,” Elijah says.
You can see Beck for yourself with the impressive premiere of TRON: Uprising tonight at 9:30PM on the Disney Channel. The show will re-air on Monday, March 21 on Disney XD before the official Disney XD series premiere on Thursday, June 7. Check it out – it’s quite good! Below you can see a video featurette about the show’s big premiere event last weekend:
