Ian is a non-binary programmer who works with Ziggy. Ziggy — who had an Ambiguous Gender at the original project — is also non-binary in the sense that she likely uses quantum computing qubits instead of standard binary bits.
The accelerator can't maintain Ben's leap to the future for very long, and tries repeatedly to pull him back to the past and into his next leap. It makes sense because of the way leaping works; you can't Set Right What Once Went Wrong in your relative future because it hasn't happened yet, and could be changed by either leaping around in the past, or by making changes in your present. So there's effectively no mission, and Ben's leaping parameters are automatically met.
Future Ian tells Ben to fight off the leap as long as possible, which makes sense given the revelation in "Mirror Image" that a leaper has some manner of control over their own leaps.
Magic describes being leapt into as feeling a nudge (presumably by Sam), and "saying yes to the nudge." That seems to neatly cover the issue of consent that the original series never examined. But that doesn't necessarily explain all of Sam's leaps. Al and Tom Stratton were both sleeping when Sam leaped into them, mentally ill leapeesnote Jimmy LaMotta, Sam Beederman, and possibly Lee Harvey Oswald may not have been able to consent, and maybe worst of all, on multiple timesnote Frankie LaPalma, Will Kinman, and maybe Joe McBride that "nudge" would've happened in the middle of sex!
It was theorized on The Quantum Leap Podcast that Sam's leap into Magic was unique because Sam's love for his brother Tom was so great that he deliberately leaped himself to Vietnam so he could save Tom's life.
In "Stand by Ben," Ben leaps in on July 10, 1996, and eventually leaps back out on July 12, spending two nights in the leap, with Addison back in the future remaining with him in real time via the Imaging Chamber. While it's late afternoon on the 10th from Ben's POV, the Project's lockdown protocol is triggered, causing Magic and Jenn to get stuck in the project's elevator. Addison doesn't leave the Imaging Chamber to go rescue Magic and Jenn until it's the evening of the 11th from Ben's POV. If the events at the Project are happening at the same 1:1 pace as those of the leap, poor Magic and Jenn had to have been stuck in that elevator for more than 24 hours.
In the first episode, Addison tells Ben that they've been trying to locate him "for hours." In each subsequent episode, the project seems like they're able to find him fairly quickly. However, this version of PQL doesn't have a Waiting Room due to Ben and the leapee being in the same place due to quantum entanglement. Given that "Revenge of the Evil Leaper" and "Mirror Image" establish that previous leaping projects require a leapee so they can lock onto the leaper, and given that Gushie stated that a scan for a fully-gone Sam could take two weeks to a month, it seems like the new PQL improved on the old project's search and lock methods, or are using data from the accelerator since Ben is apparently tied to it for his slingshot maneuvers.
This new series establishes that leaping into the future should be impossible, and that the only way it could happen is through focused momentum like Ben is apparently building up. But Al, Gushie, and Ziggy scan to the end of the 21st Century in "Mirror Image," indicating that the previous PQL figured there was a chance it could happen with conventional leaping; at the bare minimum, they had the ability to scan the future.
In that same vein, it's unclear why Ian can't track Ben's leap to the future at the end of "The Friendly Skies" if Gushie and Al were previously able to scan the future (unless the project explicitly needs Ziggy and/or the Imaging Chamber in order to do so).
In various episodes towards the end of the first season, Jenn, Ian, and Magic each step in as temporary holograms to help Ben out. Gushie had a lot of technical trouble filling in for Al during "Killin' Time," but the new project doesn't appear to have that same trouble (which could be attributed to updated technology). But it raises the question of why Magic doesn't put the team on regular observer rotations to give Addison a break.
In "Ben, Interrupted", Ian explains that the original Project misfiled a report about the Evil Leapers. As there's no indication that Lothos was ever shut down, the fact that there is a rogue malicious leaping organization still out there somewhere — and one forgotten by the United States government, to boot — is extremely worrying.
Also in "Ben, Interrupted," Martinez grabs a scalpel and is fully prepared to murder an innocent nurse in order to fulfill the leap's mission, but is interrupted by Addison at the last second. If Martinez is also leaping around via slingshot, how many of his own leaps has he completed because he's murdered someone innocent?
In "Judgment Day," Martinez leaps into Magic in 2018. Did Magic feel the "nudge" again, assume it was Sam returning, and allow Martinez to leap in? Further, given what he knows about Sam Beckett, does this make past versions of Magic vulnerable?
