Bourne Legacy star Jeremy Renner says he is still game to do a sequel to the 2012 film which saw him briefly taking over as the lead of the Bourne franchise, before original series star Matt Damon decided to return for 2016's Jason Bourne. Renner appeared in The Bourne Legacy as Aaron Cross, an agent of Outcome who is forced to go on the run after Jason Bourne's actions lead to his program being shut down.
Despite Damon's departure as the lead, The Bourne Legacy still grossed $276 million worldwide and there was talk of Renner continuing in the lead spot of the series. At one point a Bourne Legacy sequel seemed to have been set up with Justin Lin as director but plans abruptly changed and that sequel was put on hold as Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon came back to the franchise. Renner was shuffled aside for Jason Bourne and with Matt Damon back in the saddle, the film grossed a solid $415 million worldwide despite some lukewarm reviews.
In an interview with Collider, Renner said he enjoyed the experience of working on The Bourne Legacy and would be willing to return for a sequel:
I mean, the willingness on my part is there cause that to me is where a movie … Like we were talking about the differences between a big movie and then like a small movie, as far as like maybe budget. Well, this is when that in shooting Bourne Legacy there’s a lot of complexity in the character and it felt like shooting a small independent movie only because, not so much cause of the budget, just because there’s a small team. It was like [DP Robert] Elswit and our director and the writer and we were all just there in the mountains doing this and doing that and a lot of action and a lot of fun things to do, but there’s a communion and a heavily emotional investment into what we were doing. So, I really really enjoyed shooting that movie, and so my desire and will in wanting to do that is yes, but is has to be … an audience has to want that and the studio. There’s a lot of other people. It’s kind of outside my pay grade to make those decisions, but yeah I’d want to do that. It’s interesting you mentioned sort of that mid budget film and it is sort of harder to keep finding those and the sort of way to get the collaboration of an indie with a slightly higher budget.
Renner seems to be speaking in very general terms about the possibility of returning to the Bourne franchise, with no specific plans in the offing. Justin Lin gave a similar less-than-optimistic view of the potential for a Renner-starred Bourne Legacy sequel when he recently spoke about the project. When speaking about the Bourne series as a whole, Matt Damon indicated that for another sequel to be made, someone would have to come up with an "incredible story."
By all indications, the Bourne series in a state of limbo and will remain there for the foreseeable future. Jeremy Renner meanwhile still has that gig in the Avengers movies, which is a pretty good one. The actor is set to get working on Avengers 4 after a recent on-set accident on a non-Avengers film that left him with two broken arms. Renner's current film Wind River is receiving glowing reviews.
MORE: Justin Lin Offers Update on Bourne Legacy Sequel
Source: Collider
