The shrug-worthy inevitability has come to fruition, for Deadline report that Universal have been taking action on a sequel to The Bourne Legacy, last year’s Jeremy Renner-led continuation of the shaky cam-oriented espionage franchise. It’s been expected as long as the first project was set into motion, really — that’s how it works, now, but you don’t need me to tell you — and was essentially confirmed, however mildly, by the studio this past February.
Now, the creative current begins to flow. Anthony Peckham (Sherlock Holmes, Invictus) is the go-to man on their script, about which we, to little surprise, know absolutely nothing, save for the matter of Jason Bourne. Matt Damon‘s non-presence (excepting headshots) was heavily palpable in Tony Gilroy‘s picture, and it seems like we’ll have to suck that up: the studio would, reportedly, like to keep Renner‘s Aaron Cross (how many of you remembered his name?) the center of action, while their absent star’s reluctance to join sans Paul Greengrass sounds to have remained adamant. This doesn’t rule out some kind of appearance — a third-act voice heard on a phone; a pre-credits emergence that leads to a smash cut (please hire me) — but, for the time being, don’t count on seeing Jason Bourne.
Then again, a half-cooked, wildly unengaging protagonist such as Aaron Cross could always use a bit more room to breathe; throwing a well-known, well-liked hero into it would do the newcomer no favors, clearly. I can’t say whether or not Peckham has the right stuff to get this franchise back into shape and the new protagonist off the ground — maybe I don’t care to find out either way — but I’ll be thrilled to have these doubts disproved.
Do you think another Bourne is a wise course of action for Universal? What direction might you like to see things head?