I Just Rewatched Tron: Legacy, And Now I Have A Big Question About Ares

I have been a Tron fan since I was a kid, since not too long after the original film came out. Years later, when the long-awaited sequel, Tron: Legacy, finally came out, I was as excited as anybody. When the planned sequel to that movie fell apart, I was more than a little frustrated.

But now Tron 3 is almost here, with the Tron: Ares release date less than a month away. While I’m still annoyed it’s not a direct sequel to Tron: Legacy, I’ll take what I can get, and at the end of the day, I’m just glad we’re getting a sequel. Although now that the sequel has set off a chain of events that has me asking a pretty big question about Tron: Ares.

Tron And Tron: Legacy Look Amazing In 4K

Alongside the release of Tron: Ares in theaters, the first two Tron movies are also getting a brand new release of their own. Both have received shiny new 4K transfers, overseen by original Tron director Steven Lisberger. As a fan, I was very excited to get a hold of these, and so I then did what any self-respecting Tron would do. I went back into the Grid.

I rewatched both Tron films, and they are still amazing, but it was when I found myself watching the opening of Tron: Legacy that I was reminded about something that should, if the events of Tron: Legacy are properly addressed in the new movie, be kind of a big deal.

The Tron Franchise Exists In The Tron Universe

The original Tron follows the story of Kevin Flynn, who gets himself zapped by the Master Control Program, forcing him into a world that exists inside computers. Flynn, alongside programs Tron and Yori, works to help Flynn escape, which he eventually does.

At the beginning of Tron: Legacy, we see Sam Flynn’s childhood bedroom, which includes, among other things, a Tron poster for the then-new Tron video game, which is identical to the real Tron movie poster. We also see action figures of characters fighting each other using discs as weapons and lightcycle toys. All the hallmarks that we have come to associate with Tron as a franchise.

Kevin Flynn Created Tron Based On His Experience Inside The Computer

While we do see some elements of the world of Tron before Kevin Flynn goes into the computer, like video games based on lightcycles and tanks, none of them include the Tron branding. During the early montage sequence in Legacy that explains Kevin Flynn’s disappearance, it’s mentioned that Flynn created the video games Space Paranoids, a game specifically mentioned that Flynn made before the events of the first movie, and a game called Tron, which must have come after.

Basically, Kevin Flynn took his experiences from the first movie and turned them into a video game called Tron. It’s logical to assume that Tron became a massive franchise, leading to toy lines and maybe even an eventual film adaptation, among other things. Maybe Tron eventually became a theme park ride.

So the world of the Tron movies includes both a fictional franchise about people that live inside the computer, and a real world inside the computer. By the end of Legacy, while most or all of the people in the computer world know the world of the “users” exists, most users don’t know the truth about the computer, but that’s all about to change.

Will The Fact That Tron Is “Real” Be Addressed In Ares?

The trailers for Tron: Ares show a movie that appears to take place significantly, if not mostly, in the “real” world. The existence of Ares and other digital life forms may be something that is only revealed to a small number officially, but it’s clear that their existence will not be hidden from the public for long. The trailers show lightcycles flying down city streets and cutting through police cars. By the end of Tron: Ares, it seems all but certain that the world will know the truth.

So who’s going to be the first person to mention that those people and the cool bikes they ride look an awful lot like something out of a video game? And not just any video game. They look like something from Tron, a game that we’re told in Legacy is one of the best-selling video games of all time. This is the sort of thing people will notice.

I have to wonder if this connection will be addressed. Will a character say something about the lightcyckes or the people? Will it just be an off-hand comment, a sort of joke or reference for those that remember Legacy, or will there be something more?

I Still Hope A Direct Sequel To Tron: Legacy Could Happen, And This Could Be A Way In

I fully expect that Tron: Ares either won’t deal with this minor detail at all, the movie is clearly looking to be something of a soft reboot for the franchise, or, if it is mentioned, it will only be as a passing reference, a punchline, or an easter egg. However, it’s also possible that it could lead to something more, and I think it should.

Kevin Flynn was “missing” following his disappearance in Tron: Legacy, and obviously, he never resurfaced. The disappearance of a major tech CEO is likely to be the sort of story that never really dies. The events of Tron: Ares may give people the opportunity to put the pieces together and figure out just where it is that Flynn disappeared to.

And then what? Imagine if we learned that the characters from Star Wars or DC Comics or, well, Tron, were real, actually. It would change the way we see... everything.

Tron: Legacy answered the question of whether people from the digital frontier could enter the ‘real” world, and the events of Tron: Ares could provide that same answer to the rest of the world. It only makes sense that if that can happen, people from our world can travel to the digital frontier.

This potentially opens up the door to a host of new Tron sequels, maybe a Disney+ series, whatever they want to do with it. However, if people do connect the dots on the disappearance of Kevin Flynn, it could create a reason to bring Sam Flynn and Quorra back into the story.