'TRON: Uprising' Star Elijah Wood Moves From 'Rings' to Discs (Video)

After playing Frodo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings films, Elijah Wood is no stranger to playing characters who struggle to deal with a destiny that’s larger than themselves. Wood revisits that territory again on the small screen in TRON: Uprising, an animated series in which he plays Beck, a humble mechanic enlisted by Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) to lead a revolution after an act of civil disobedience puts him in the crosshairs of the authorities.

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Wood tells THR that it’s less his past experience as Frodo than the familiarity of the hero’s journey that primed him for what his character does in the series. “I think it’s a relatively familiar archetype,” he said. “A hero construct of an everyman individual that’s faced with extraordinary consequences and ultimately takes the mantle and responsibility of something he never thought was possible.”

Although Wood admits that he came to TRON late, he says that jumping into the show, which takes place between the 1982 TRON and its 2010 sequel TRON: Legacy, excited him because of its mix of old and new mythmaking. “This was exciting to me not because it was familiar, but because it existed within the world of TRON,” he said.

“I was thrilled that they were making an animated series that not only dealt with the mythology and universe that had already been established, but they were also going to tell stories that existed chronologically between the first and second film."

Watch the video above for more details about his character, and his preparation for TRON: Uprising. The show premieres on Disney XD on June 7, 2012.