Summary

• TRON: Ares retcons the ending of TRON: Legacy, possibly ignoring Quorra's significant leap to the real world.
• Jared Leto's Ares will be the first program to leap into the physical world, contradicting TRON: Legacy's ending.
• TRON 3 seems to focus on new characters, potentially retconning the importance of Quorra and Sam from TRON: Legacy.

Newly confirmed story details about TRON: Ares, the third film in the TRON series, imply a major retcon of TRON: Legacy that would explain the apparent absence of that film's two most important surviving characters. The original TRON was a cult classic for years, eventually leading to a sequel in 2010. However, TRON: Legacy received a mixed reception at the time, resulting in plans to continue the series stalling out. Now, the proposed sequel to that film has been remixed into TRON: Ares, which formal announcements from Disney have suggested will be less connected to the protagonists of the series.

Part of these announcements revealed that TRON 3's story connection to TRON: Legacy has been called into question, as well as the status of that film's primary characters — who may have been more or less retconned out of the series as a result.

Legacy's Ending Brought Quorra To The Real World Before Ares

TRON: Legacy technically introduced a sentiment A.I. to the real world in the form of Quorra, suggesting that the ending of that film is being retconned or ignored for the TRON: Ares. TRON: Legacy focused largely on Sam Flynn, the son of Kevin Flynn from the original TRON. After being brought into the virtual reality known as the Grid, Sam got to meet his father and his apprentice, the ISO program Quorra. Quorra was a naturally occurring life form within the digital landscape and was established as the last of her kind.

TRON: Legacy ends with Sam and Quorra escaping the Grid and returning to the physical world. What makes this interesting in connection to the TRON: Ares is that the official description for the new film notes that humanity is about to encounter its first sentiment A.I. being in the form of Ares. However, Quorra originally being an ISO means she was technically the first A.I. to make it to the real world. This undercuts the apparent importance of Ares' venturing into the physical world and suggests that Quorra's ending is being ignored for the new film.

TRON: Ares' Story Raises Questions About How It Connects To TRON: Legacy

Despite setting up a follow-up in its ending, TRON: Legacy doesn't seem to be directly leading into TRON: Ares. There are no mentions of Sam and Quorra in the plot tease for TRON: Ares, and their actors (Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde respectively) have not been announced to be in the cast. Although TRON: Ares began life as a direct sequel to TRON: Legacy, Disney eventually put the project on hold. It was eventually transformed into more of a reboot of the franchise, seemingly leaving behind the ending of TRON: Legacy while the filmmakers went in a different direction.

This could explain why Ares is considered the first A.I. to make it to the real world, as Quorra's adventure is no longer considered canon. While Quorra and Ares' TRON: Ares suit designs appear similar, this could be the result of hailing from the same digital world instead of having a concrete connection. Erasing Quorra's notable arrival into the real world would still feel like a serious retcon of TRON: Legacy, which ended on a more triumphant note as Sam declared his intentions to take over his father's company and show Quorra the world.

TRON 3's Retcon Might Explain Why Quorra & Sam Are Not Returning

The idea that TRON: Ares is retconning the ending of TRON: Legacy could explain why Quorra and Sam aren't in the new film, especially given their important roles in the overarching legacy of the universe. It's possible that their involvement is being held back as part of a twist within the film, and that Quorra has been hidden away from the world. The fact that the third TRON movie has been called a reboot instead of a sequel, though, implies that Quorra's successful leap to the real world is being ignored or potentially outright retconned out of the storyline.

By realigning the film's focus onto the new program instead of the returning characters, Disney seems to be implying that the events of TRON: Legacy don't matter to the overarching story they want to tell. This would explain why the cast doesn't seem to include any returning characters. However, this doesn't confirm one way or the other if the rest of that film's events actually happened, or if they've been retconned away as well. Fans of the cult classic sci-fi franchise will have to wait for the release of TRON: Ares to find out for sure

TRON: Ares is currently scheduled to premiere in theaters sometime in 2025.