DisneyWarning! Spoilers ahead for Tron: Ares.It seems that the sentient AI programs of the Tron universe are here to stay. In the final moments of Tron: Ares, Jared Leto’s eponymous program finds himself on a very specific quest. But who is he looking for, and what does his journey actually mean? Far from being the conclusion of the entire Tron saga, Ares seems to suggest that there are more stories to tell about the movement of sentient programs from the Grid to the real world.Does this suggest we could see Ares in a possible sequel? Here’s how the ending of Tron: Ares looks backward as it looks forward.Ares Is In Search Of Legacy CharactersSam and Quorra ride into the sunset in Tron: Legacy (2010). | DisneyAfter defeating Athena (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Dillinger (Evan Peters), Ares (Leto) parts ways with programming boss Eve Kim (Greta Lee) and heads off on a quest of self-discovery. But in the last moments of the movie, as he rides a Ducati motorcycle, it becomes clear that he’s looking for others like himself. The Ducati bike is an Easter egg for Tron: Legacy, insofar as it's the kind of ride that Sam Flynn (Gareth Headland) rocked in that 2010 movie. But this Easter egg is connected to another, deeper connection between Ares and Legacy: Ares also has a photograph of Quorra, played by Olivia Wilde in Tron: Legacy. It also appears that Ares has an updated photo of Quorra, meaning she’s aged a bit since 2010, just like Wilde would have in real life. This is significant because Ares is like Quorra, a program that was able to move into the real world. At the end of Legacy, Quorra and Sam were seen riding off into a new life, on a Ducati motorcycle not unlike the one Ares has in the new ending.So, why does Ares want to find Quorra and Sam?Tron: Legacy Probably Created The Permanence CodeFlynn (Jeff Bridges) and Ares (Jared Leto) in a pivotal moment in Tron: Ares. | DisneyThe primary Macguffin of Tron: Ares is something called “The Permanence Code,” a way for programs to remain stable in the real world beyond a short period of time. When Ares finds his way over to Flynn’s original server — a kind of retro 1980s Tron Grid — he gets the Permanence Code from Flynn (Jeff Bridges) himself. But how did Flynn invent this?Well, the movie doesn’t explain it outright, but we’re certainly meant to believe that the creation of the ISOs in Tron: Legacy is part of the answer. In Legacy, Quorra was unique because she was an Isomorphic Algorithm, who was simply born out of the Grid without being programmed or created by a human. Ares, despite having some of Quorra’s charming naivety, is not an ISO. But Flynn almost certainly gifted him with some aspect of the ISO’s nature when he gave Ares the Permanence Code. Essentially, the germination of stable artificial life, at least, on some level, started with Quorra, making Ares something of a mashup; a program created on a separate Grid by Dillinger, assisted by Flynn in an old-school Grid, and then ported into the real world.If Ares ends up finding Sam and Quorra, he’ll essentially find a few kindred spirits. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that a sequel would feature Ares, Sam, or Quorra. Instead, it’s almost as though the ending of this movie suggests that Ares could go into seclusion, just like Sam and Quorra, and never return to the games on the Grid, ever again. So, if there is a direct sequel to Tron: Ares, the ending of the movie just created a way for all the Ares characters and Legacy characters to return. But it also created a path for these characters to remain hidden, too.Tron: Ares is in theaters now. Tron: Legacy streams on Disney+.