credits

This story contains spoilers for “Tron: Ares.”

Get ready to enter the Grid: “Tron: Ares” has finally hit theaters.

Directed by Joachim Rønning, “Tron: Ares” is the third installment of the classic sci-fi franchise that kicked off with the 1982 film “Tron.” And like many modern movies that are part of an expansive Hollywood franchise, “Tron: Ares” makes sure to leave the door open for future storytelling.

“Tron: Ares” does so in the closing moments of the movie’s main story as well as in a stinger that plays after the credits start to roll.

The film, which picks up sometime after the events of “Tron: Legacy” (2010), stars Jared Leto as an advanced AI program named Ares created by Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters), a programmer and rising CEO of a tech corporation. Greta Lee portrays Eve Kim, also a programmer and the CEO of the tech company once led by original “Tron” hero Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges).

Although extensive knowledge of the previous films is not necessarily required to understand “Tron: Ares,” fans of “Tron” and “Legacy” will be the first to recognize the significance of the doors that the film leaves open. (Turn back now if you want to avoid spoilers.)

Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger in “Tron: Ares.”

(Leah Gallo / Disney)

The mid-credits scene is a callback to ‘Tron’

“Tron: Ares” ends with Julian — the grandson of Flynn’s original “Tron” rival, Edward Dillinger — escaping into Dillinger Corp.’s Grid.

The mid-credits scene shows Julian taking in the wreckage of his digital world before noticing and activating his identity disc. After taking ahold of the glowing circular object, his digital suit starts to form in a familiar silhouette.

Those who have seen “Tron” will recognize that Julian’s suit resembles that of Sark, the villainous program written by Ed Dillinger, who led the original film’s Master Control Program army. In “Tron,” Sark was played by David Warner, who also portrayed Ed.

The scene further cements Julian as the successor to his grandfather’s legacy and leaves the possibility open for his return as a villain in a future “Tron” installment.

Jared Leto as Ares in “Tron: Ares.”

(Leah Gallo / Disney)

‘Tron: Ares’ ends by teasing a future link-up with ‘Tron: Legacy’

The new “Tron” movie ends by hinting that Ares’ story is not quite over, either. In the final moments of the film, Ares is shown looking at images of Quorra, a character portrayed by Olivia Wilde in “Tron: Legacy.”

Quorra, like Ares, started her existence in the Grid and eventually made her way out into the real world. But Quorra isn’t a man-made program; she is an “isomorphic algorithm,” or a digital being who spontaneously came into existence in the Grid. She was introduced in “Legacy” as Flynn’s charge who was learning about humanity from him.

Could a meeting between Ares and Quorra be in the “Tron” franchise’s future? Only time (and likely “Tron: Ares’” box office returns) will tell.

Callum Walsh knows what it means to earn a living with his hands. Before throwing hooks and jabs in the ring, he spent his days lifting cargo on fishing boats in the port of Cobh, under the cold Atlantic wind in his native Ireland.

He was only 16, but he already understood hard work. Today, at 24, he continues to work just as hard, although his stage has changed — now he does it under the bright lights of a boxing ring.

On Saturday at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Walsh (14-0, 11 KOs) will have the night he always dreamed of.

He will fight on the co-main event of a card headlined by Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez and Terence Crawford, a huge platform for his young career, and it will be broadcast on Netflix, where he will risk his undefeated record in a 10-round super welterweight bout against another hungry youngster, Fernando Vargas Jr. (17-0, 15 KOs), heir to the surname of a former world champion.

Ireland’s Callum Walsh punches Scotland’s Dean Sutherland during a super welterweight boxing match on March 16 in New York.

(Frank Franklin II / Associated Press)

Far from trying to forget his days on the docks, Walsh is grateful for them.

“Training is tough, yes, but I enjoy it. It’s much better than getting up at dawn to go to the port,” Walsh said with a smile.

The work ethic he displayed as a loader on fishing boats also helped establish Walsh as one of the most promising prospects in world boxing.

The Irish southpaw has fought three times at Madison Square Garden and filled Dublin’s 3Arena last year. His aggressive and fast style sets him apart, with a volume of punches that rarely diminishes and a courage that leads him to exchange blows without backing down.

“I’ll be opening up to a much wider fan base. There will be a lot of people watching the fight,” said Walsh, who wants people to be satisfied with the contest, unlike the last Netflix show in which Jake Paul disappointed millions of viewers by having a very limited opponent, 58-year-old Mike Tyson.

“I want to show them what real boxing is all about. There will be a lot of people watching for the first time, and I want them to become fans,” said Walsh, an admirer of his compatriot, Conor McGregor, a UFC star.

Walsh is training at Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles under the watchful eye of Freddie Roach. There, the Irishman is combining his solid amateur foundation of more than 150 fights with the legendary trainer’s offensive style.

“I couldn’t have chosen a better teacher,” Walsh said.

On the other side of the ring, Walsh will face Vargas, a southpaw with a powerful punch who made his debut in 2020 but already boasts 17 victories — 15 of them by knockout. However, the odds in Las Vegas favor the Irishman.

“I don’t care about Las Vegas. Las Vegas loses all the time,” Vargas Jr. said on “The PorterWay Podcast” when asked about not being favored.

Undefeated junior middleweight boxers Callum Walsh, left, and Fernando Vargas Jr., right, face off while UFC’s Dana White looks on during a news conference at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.

(Steve Marcus / Getty Images)

The fight will not only be a duel between undefeated fighters. It will also be a huge showcase. The powerful boxing promoter and organizer of the Canelo vs. Crawford fight, Turki Al-Sheikh, will be watching Walsh closely, as will UFC president Dana White, who has shared a growing interest in boxing.

“The lights can’t shine any brighter than that night,” warned Tom Loeffler, Walsh’s promoter.

But Walsh says he doesn’t feel any pressure. Not from the stage, nor from protecting his perfect record.

“Everyone can lose at some point. The important thing is to face real fights and give the public what they want,” Walsh said. At 24, he knows he still has a long way to go.

The story of the young man who left the boats for the ring will have a new chapter this Saturday in Las Vegas. It will be up to his fists to impress the world and confirm that he is no longer a prospect, but a reality.

This article first appeared in Spanish via L.A. Times en Español.

Coco Gauff was struggling for the second time in as many matches this week at the U.S. Open.

At one point during her second-round match against Donna Vekic on Thursday in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the world’s No. 3-ranked player became overwhelmed and couldn’t stop the tears from flowing.

Gauff played through it all, however, and advanced with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory. She became emotional again afterward as she thanked the crowd for its support.

“You really helped me a lot,” the two-time major championship winner said during her post-match interview.

Gauff indicated that one member of the crowd in particular provided extra inspiration during the match — U.S. gymnastics legend Simone Biles. The seven-time Olympic gold medalist has been open about her mental health struggles during a career in which she has also won 23 world titles.

“Honestly, I saw her and … she helped me pull it out,” said Gauff, who later told reporters that her “Mount Rushmore of athletes” consisted of Biles and tennis legend Serena Williams. “I was just thinking if she could go on a six-inch beam and do that, with all the pressures of the world, then I can hit the ball in this 75 — I don’t know how big this court is.

Coco Gauff reacts after defeating Donna Vekic during the second round of the U.S. Open on Thursday in New York.

(Frank Franklin II / Associated Press)

“So, yeah, I saw her late in the second getting interviewed by ESPN and, yeah, it brought me a little bit of calm, just knowing her story, with all the things she went through mentally. So, she’s an inspiration, surely, and her presence definitely did help me today.”

During her in-match interview with ESPN’s Katie George, Biles said she came to the U.S. Open specifically to watch Gauff.

“She’s incredible, amazing, and it’s like, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Biles said. “It’s just such a privilege to watch her on home soil and watch Black Girl Magic.”

Soon after the match, the two athletes had the opportunity to meet.

“Gymnastics is so different, so I just wanted to scream, ‘Go, Coco!’” Biles told Gauff. “But then they were like, ‘Maybe not right now.’ And I was like, ‘Got it.’ But congrats. I love watching you, everything you do.”

The winner of the 2023 U.S. Open and 2025 French Open told her idol: “You’re such an inspiration. Like, seriously. What I said in the [on-court] interview, I was thinking about that literally.

“My mom did gymnastics on a way lower level than you. And so, she was like, ‘If I can focus on that, then you can do that.’ So, I was like, ‘OK, I guess you’re right.’ … You’re an inspiration, seriously.”

Each year, the world produces about 400 million tonnes of plastic waste – more than the combined weight of all the people on Earth.

Just 9 percent of it is recycled, and one study predicts that global emissions from plastic production could triple by 2050.

Since 2022, the United Nations has been trying to broker a global treaty to deal with plastic waste. But talks keep collapsing, particularly on the issue of introducing a cap on plastic production.

Campaigners blame petrostates whose economies depend on oil – the raw ingredient for plastics – for blocking the treaty negotiations.

This week, the UN is meeting in Switzerland in the latest attempt to reach an agreement. But, even if the delegates find a way to cut the amount of plastic the world makes, it could take years to have a meaningful effect.

In the meantime, institutions like the World Bank are turning to the markets for alternative solutions. One of these is plastic offsetting.

So what is plastic offsetting? Does it work? And what do programmes like this mean for vulnerable communities who depend on plastic waste to make a living?

What is plastic offsetting, and how do credits work?

Plastic credits are based on a similar idea to carbon credits.

With carbon credits, companies that emit greenhouse gases can pay a carbon credit company to have their emissions “cancelled out” by funding reforestation programmes or other projects to help “sink” their carbon output.

For each tonne of CO2 they cancel out, the company gets a carbon credit. This is how an airline can tell customers that their flight is “carbon neutral”.

Plastic credits work on a similar model. The world’s biggest plastic polluters can pay a plastic credit company to collect and re-purpose plastic.

If a polluter pays for one tonne of plastic to be collected, it gets one plastic credit.

If the polluter buys the number of plastic credits equivalent to its annual plastic output, it might be awarded “plastic neutral” or “plastic net zero” status.

Does plastic offsetting work?

Like carbon credits, plastic credits are controversial.

Carbon markets are already worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually, with their value set to grow to billions.

But in 2023, SourceMaterial, a nonprofit newsroom, revealed that only a fraction of nearly 100 million carbon credits result in real emissions reductions.

“Companies are making false claims and then they’re convincing customers that they can fly guilt-free or buy carbon-neutral products when they aren’t in any way carbon-neutral,” Barbara Haya, a US carbon trading expert, said at the time.

The same thing could happen with plastics. Analysis by SourceMaterial of the world’s first plastic credit registry, Plastic Credit Exchange (PCX) in the Philippines, found that only 14 percent of PCX credits went towards recycling.

While companies that had bought credits with PCX were getting “plastic neutral” status, most of the plastic was burned as fuel in cement factories, in a method known as “co-processing” that releases thousands of tonnes of CO2 and toxins linked to cancer.

A spokesperson for PCX said at the time that co-processing “reduces reliance on fossil fuels, and is conducted under controlled conditions to minimise emissions”.

Now, the World Bank is also pointing to plastic credits as a solution.

In January last year, the World Bank launched a $100m bond that “provides investors with a financial return” linked to the plastic credits projects backed by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste, an industry initiative that supports plastic credit projects, in Ghana and Indonesia.

At the UN talks in December last year, a senior environmental specialist from the World Bank said plastic credits were an “emerging result-based financing tool” which can fund projects that “reduce plastic pollution”.

What do companies think of plastic credits?

Manufacturers, petrostates and the operators of credit projects have all lobbied for market solutions, including plastic credits, at the UN.

Oil giant ExxonMobil and petrochemicals companies LyondellBasell and Dow Chemical are all members of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste in Ghana and Indonesia – both epicentres of plastic pollution that produce plastic domestically and import waste from overseas.

But those companies are also members of the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a lobby group that has warned the UN it does “not support production caps or bans”, given the “benefits of plastics”.

What do critics and affected local communities say?

Critics like Anil Verma, a professor of human resource management at the University of Toronto who has studied waste pickers in Brazil, call plastic offsetting a “game of greenwashing”.

Verma argues that offsetting lets polluters claim they are tackling the waste problem without having to cut production – or profit.

Patrick O’Hare, an academic at St Andrews University in Scotland, who has attended all rounds of the UN plastic treaty negotiations, said he has “noticed with concern the increasing prominence given to plastics credits”.

Plastic credits are being promoted in some quarters “despite the lack of proven success stories to date” and “the evident problems with the carbon credit model on which it is based”, he added.

Even some of the world’s biggest companies have distanced themselves from plastic credits.

Nestle, which had previously bought plastic credits, said last year that it does not believe in their effectiveness in their current form.

Coca-Cola and Unilever are also “not convinced”, according to reports, and like Nestle, they back government-mandated “extended producer responsibility” schemes.

Yet the World Bank has plans to expand its support for plastic offsetting, calling it a “win-win with the local communities and ecosystems that benefit from less pollution”.

Some of the poorest people in Ghana eke out a living by collecting plastic waste for recycling.

Johnson Doe, head of a refuse collectors’ group in the capital, Accra, says funds for offsetting would be better spent supporting local waste pickers.

Doe wants his association to be officially recognised and funded, instead of watching investment flow into plastic credits. They’re a “false solution”, he says.

This story was produced in partnership with SourceMaterial 

READ MORE: Ghana’s waste pickers brave mountains of plastic – and big industry

The announcement last month that Occidental Studios would be put up for sale marked a historic turning point in a studio once used by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks to make silent films.

It also underscored how dramatically the market has shifted for the owners of soundstages across Los Angeles that have been buffeted by a confluence of forces — the pandemic, strikes in 2023 and the continued flight of production to other states and countries.

As film activity has fallen to historic levels in the L.A. region — film shoot days dropped 22% in the first quarter of 2025 — the places that host film and TV crews, along with prop houses and other businesses that service the industry, have been especially hard hit.

Between 2016 and 2022, Los Angeles’ soundstages were nearly filled to capacity, boasting average occupancy rates of 90%, according to data from the nonprofit organization FilmLA, which tracks on-location shoot days in the Greater L.A. area.

That rate plummeted to 69% in 2023, as dual writers’ and actors’ strikes brought the industry to a halt.

Once the strikes were over, production never came back to what it was. In fact, last year the average occupancy rate dropped even further to 63%, according to a FilmLA report released in April.

So far this year, there is “no reason to think the occupancy numbers look better,” said Philip Sokoloski, spokesperson for FilmLA.

“It’s a trailing indicator of the loss of production,” he said. “The suddenness of the crash is what caught everybody by surprise.”

Studio owners, who have watched their soundstages go from overbooked to frequently empty, are celebrating the new state tax credits meant to boost their industry and create action on their lots.

The California Legislature’s decision to more than double the amount allocated each year to the state’s film and television tax credit program to $750 million could be a tipping point toward better times, studio owners said, but the climb out of the doldrums is still steep.

“This is definitely a defining moment and to see whether or not L.A. is going to get itself back up to the occupancy levels that it had prior to COVID,” said Shep Wainwright, managing partner of East End Studios. “Everyone’s pretty bullish about it, but it’s obviously been such a slog for the past few years.”

Sean Griffin of Sunset Studios called the tax credit boost signed into law last week “a massive stride in the right direction” while Zach Sokoloff of independent studio operator Hackman Capital Partners called the decision “an enormous win for the state.”

Sokoloff hopes to see its Southern California facilities, which include Radford Studio Center and Culver Studios, perk up the way their New York properties did when the state increased its film and TV subsidy to $800 million in May.

“We had stages that had been sitting empty, and almost 24 hours after the passage of the tax credit bill in New, York, our phones were ringing,” he said. “We had renewed interest in soundstage occupancy there.”

Community member William Meyerchak, left, Los Angeles City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, center, and Zach Sokoloff, senior vice president of Hackman Capital Partners, right, celebrate after the passing of the $1-billion TVC project, which will expand and redevelop the old CBS Television City site at Beverly Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, on Jan. 7, 2025.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles Center Studios, where such shows as “Mad Men” and “Westworld” filmed, also has felt the effects of the production slump.

The 26-year-old facility in downtown L.A. has six 18,000-foot soundstages and three smaller stages, along with a number of practical locations on the lot for shooting. Before the pandemic, its stages were 100% full for more than 10 years, said Sam Nicassio, president of Los Angeles Center Studios.

He declined to state the studio’s current occupancy rate, though he said it was above the average for about 300 soundstages throughout the area, which his company tracked at 58%.

“It’s been a struggle,” he said. “The slowdown in overall production activity, coupled with coming out of the strikes and all of us expecting to have a jump-start again and we didn’t, was very difficult. There’s a lot of soundstages for not a lot of users right now.”

Not long ago, private equity firms saw L.A. studio stages as good business opportunities.

A billboard for a Netflix streaming show “The Diplomat,” on a building across the street from where WGA members walk a picket line around Bronson Sunset Studios, in May 2023.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

WGA members walk a picket line around Bronson Sunset Studios lot, where Netflix leases space for production and offices, in May 2023.

(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

A number of firms participated heavily in the construction of new facilities, which seemed like smart bets due to advancements in production technology, the desire of studios and streamers to cut down on unpredictable risk from on-location shoots and — especially after the pandemic — health and safety systems like air filtration and more space to prevent workers from getting sick.

“Stages are critical to being able to do, especially TV, on time and on budget,” said George Huang, a professor of screenwriting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. “They are the backbone of making movies in Hollywood.”

But after the pandemic, strikes and a cutback in spending at the studios, production slowed. Then in January, the Southern California wildfires hit, further affecting production and causing many in the industry to lose their homes — and reconsider whether they wanted to stay in the Golden State.

Working with influencers

As Hollywood production slowed, soundstage operators looked for new ways to make up revenue, including shoots for the fashion industry, music videos, DJ rehearsals, video game production and even private events like birthdays or weddings.

Hackman Capital Partners, which owns and operates Television City in Los Angeles, recently announced a partnership with Interwoven Studios to open a boutique production facility catering to social media influencers, online media brands and other creators who work in nontraditional formats such as YouTube.

Among the well-known creators who have worked lately at Television City — home to such classic shows as “All in the Family” and most recently “American Idol” — are Logan Paul and Jake Shane, actress-singer Keke Palmer, livestreamers FaZe Clan and hip-hop artist Big Sean.

“As the segment of the content-creation universe grows on the smaller end of production, we’re going to be a partner to them,” Sokoloff said. “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Sunset Studios, which operates 59 stages in the Los Angeles area, has long made a point of working with short-form creators through its smaller Quixote division, said Griffin, who is head of studio sales. “We’ve always been involved with influencers, music videos and commercials.”

Such tenants working on smaller stages sometimes move up to TV and movie-sized stages when they land a big television commercial or music video, such as Selena Gomez’s “Younger and Hotter Than Me” music video recently shot at Sunset Las Palmas Studios.

Paul McCartney leased a studio at Sunset Glenoaks Studios to rehearse for his 2024 tour and and made a music video there.

In general, though, stages are still underused, he said.

“Once the strikes ended, we got a about a good healthy quarter” of production, he said. Then business “really quieted down, and we haven’t seen the show counts rebound very much.”

The vacancies have created a tenant-friendly market as studio owners compete for their business on rental prices, Griffin said.

“This is a very tough market,” he said. “Everyone is competing very, very hard.”

One reason for optimism about the new tax credits is that they apply to 30-minute shows for the first time, he said.

“L.A. is a television town,” Griffin added. “Opening up the tax credit to 30-minute comedies is going to be really helpful.”

And there are signs of life for longer scripted shows that take multiple stages and shoot for longer than other productions, Griffin said.

Developer David Simon is betting heavily on a turnaround. He is building a new movie studio from the ground up in Hollywood. His $450-million Echelon Studios complex is set to open late next year on Santa Monica Boulevard.

“We think content creation is here to stay in various forms,” he said, and that big soundstages will continue to be used even as the technology to make content changes.

Simon said he is close to signing leases with fashion brands that are creating content with celebrities and collaborating with influencers.

“We’re not nearly where we were prepandemic,” he acknowledged, but “California is the entertainment capital of the world, and the producers and directors and actors that want to stay in state will help bring back and retain our fair share of production.”

For now , at least, soundstage operators are still “treading water,” said Peter Marshall, managing principal at Epic Insurance Brokers & Consultants, who works in media insurance and counts some L.A.-based soundstages as clients.

“Most operators are pretty concerned,” he said.

Yet, the fact that there are still new soundstages opening and others are in development suggests a “high level of confidence” that production will eventually return to L.A., Sokoloski of FilmLA said.

“I am optimistic that we will keep more production here than we have in the last few years,” Nicassio said. The new tax credit program “puts us on a competitive level now with other states and countries.”

Others in the industry say that more is needed and have advocated for a federal tax credit that would help make California a morecompetitive location. Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed for the idea, urging President Trump to work with him on the issue.

“When you have a governor and big private equity firms both focusing on promoting one thing, that might, who knows, get the federal government involved,” Marshall said. “That would be the game changer.”

CALLUM SIMPSON called on inspiration from his late sister Lily Rae to come from behind and stop Ivan Zucco to win the European title.

Simpson suffered the devastating news that his 19-year-old sister had tragically died last year in a quad bike accident on holiday in Greece.

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But the Barnsley boxing hero – who headlined at the Oakwell Football Ground – continues to fight in Lily Rae’s honour.

And she would have watched on with pride as her big brother came back to stop Zucco in round ten after three knockdowns.

Simpson, crowned the European super-middleweight champion, said: “Not once did I give up, those last few rounds I’ll be honest I started thinking about my little sister Lily.

“I’ll be honest, I just thought I had to push for her and for everybody.

“This time last year, Lily was sat up here cheering me on and she was there with me tonight when it got tough, when it got hard.

“From round eight, I thought, ‘I’ve got to dig deep, I’ve got to keep pushing, I’ve gotta do it for her. She was with me tonight.”

Simpson filled Barnsley’s 23,000-seater – but he got off to a horror start after being floored by only the second punch Zucco threw.

Simpson made it to his feet with little trouble but opted to try and make Zucco pay – and buzzed the travelling Italian himself before the bell sounded.

The opener was a frenzy of wild shots with both men hurt and the following two rounds was much of the same.

And again Simpson was down in round three after a huge left hand as the chaos continued.

The former British and Commonwealth super-middleweight had to pick himself up and dust himself off to turn the fight around.

And that is exactly what he did with constant pressure in the second half of the fight turning the tide.

By round ten, Simpson was on the front foot and trapped Zucco in the corner – letting off a devastating triple uppercut.

It dropped Zucco – who got to his feet – but again he was pinned in the corner and floored with two of the same shots.

The underdog European once again made it to his feet but Simpson, smelling blood, jumped on Zucco and forced him to the floor with a barrage of shots.

This time there was no coming back for Zucco – as Simpson turned the fight on its head with a comeback victory for the ages.

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