Stay or Go? Spoilers on the Tron: Ares Post-Credits Scene
Tron: Ares sneaks in a final jolt after the credits—an electrifying stinger loaded with clues, callbacks, and a bold setup for the franchise’s next chapter. Here’s what it really signals and why it matters.
Tron finally joins the credits-scene arms race. The 1982 original and Tron: Legacy both rolled credits and called it a day. Tron: Ares? It plants a mid-credits tag that is absolutely angling for Marvel-level tease energy — and it actually matters.
Spoilers for the mid-credits scene ahead.
The setup (quick and painless)
Directed by Joachim Ronning (he co-directed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), Tron: Ares follows a war-grade program named Ares (Jared Leto) who wakes up, wants to be 'real,' and starts pushing back against his human 'owner' Julian Dillinger (Evan Peters). Julian is not shy about his plan: sell Ares and his soldier cohort to whoever wires the most money. Ares crosses paths with ENCOM exec Eve Kim (Greta Lee) — Julian’s industry rival — and discovers a piece of code that stops him from disintegrating after 29 minutes outside the Grid. That’s his ticket to the real world, so he pivots to protecting Eve and blowing up Julian’s scheme.
The finale gets loud: the digital bleeds into reality, Ares and Eve hold the line against Julian and his gadget-armed goons, and a surprising number of people are still on their feet when the dust settles. It is easy to lose track of where one specific someone ends up — hence the mid-credits scene.
Does Tron: Ares have a credits scene?
Yep. There’s a mid-credits scene, and it answers what happens to Julian after he literally lasers himself into his own Grid. Short version: he probably should have let the cops haul him in and deal with the very real fact that one of his digital creations murdered his mother. Instead, he gets this.
What actually happens in the tag
Julian, wrecked and rattled, crawls out of the Grid’s entry point. As soon as he’s clear, a sleek pedestal rises from the floor like it’s been waiting for him. On it: a very fancy disc. He pulls it free, and instantly screams as a program suit snaps onto him piece by piece. The build locks in with a pale blue helmet stamped with a red-orange V on the forehead — a symbol old-school fans will clock immediately.
Wait... Sark?
That V is the mark associated with Sark, the big bad from the 1982 film. In the original, Sark (played by David Warner) was created by Ed Dillinger (also Warner) and served as the Master Control’s military commander and the Games’ overseer. He threw Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) into a match against Crom that nearly killed him, then shoved Flynn into a Lightcycle race for good measure. His reign ended when Tron smashed his Identity Disc and, bluntly, took off the top of his head.
So is Julian the new Sark?
The tag all but knighted him. Whether it’s a straight-up rebooted Sark program, a legacy skin, or some gnarlier fusion is left hanging — which is the point. Given the lineage (Ed Dillinger made Sark; Julian is his heir), the circularity tracks. Here’s hoping we are not waiting another 15 years to see where that goes.
Tron: Ares is in theaters now.