Jeremy Renner is the Bourne Replacement!

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Jeremy Renner is clearly franchisable — he’s now part of the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE series, he’ll play Marvel’s sharpshooter Hawkeye in at least two movies, and his fairy tale action-adventure HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS could surely find further monsters to slay.

Now Renner will take over the alias previously held by Matt Damon in the pseudo-sequel THE BOURNE LEGACY. The heated hunt for an actor to lead the series in a fresh direction after the initial trilogy had nearly every male biped pursuing or pursued for the part, but Renner was a favorite and has reportedly now accepted the new assassin assignment.

Other actors who were considered as the new BOURNE star include Garrett Hedlund (TRON LEGACY), Dominic Cooper (CAPTAIN AMERICA’s Howard Stark), Luke Evans (IMMORTALS), Joel Edgerton (ANIMAL KINGDOM), Taylor Kitsch (BATTLESHIP) and Logan Marshall-Green (PROMETHEUS).

Writer-director Tony Gilroy (MICHAEL CLAYTON) and Universal are tapping into the established BOURNE “world”, and Deadline says Renner will play “an operative from a covert government program that is even more dangerous than the Treadstone brainwashing program that hatched Bourne.” The studio wants the new movie in theaters next summer.