The next issue of Empire features a cover story on Universal’s The Bourne Legacy. The new film is a reboot of sorts with Jeremy Renner in the lead as Aaron Cross.

Renner on Cross:

“He’s coming from a completely different background to Jason [Bourne]. He knows exactly who he is; he signed up to this…He wants to be part of a team. I can tell you he was in the military then he joined the programme. He’s a person who wants to be part of something… to have a sense of purpose. But then it’s taken away.”

While essentially rebooting the franchise, Legacy does exist in the same universe as the other Bourne films. Writer/director Tony Gilroy, who wrote the other Bourne movie, never wanted to make a direct sequel to The Bourne Ultimatum, the last film in the Damon starring trilogy:

“If you think of the first three Bourne films as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, then we’re showing you Elsinore. You thought you were seeing something you weren’t. What if there’s a much larger story? What if Treadstone wasn’t the only black-ops programme?

“I had never spent one moment thinking about how to do a sequel to Bourne Ultimatum. I first came in for two weeks just to spitball. I had a very random idea…so we started with that and it got more and more exciting. All of a sudden I was staring at something that had a great deal of resonance and was soulful and uncynical and was also gonna kick ass. So that was good.”

I like this direction. It keeps us in the same world  with some familiar characters, while at the same time offering new stories and a new lead.

Producer Frank Marshall also said he’d like to see Cross and Bourne in the same flick:

“You see there are several different programmes in the movie with different skill sets. All possibilities are open. My dream is that in the next one we see Matt and Jeremy team up.”

Would Damon be up for another go-around as Bourne? I’d certainly like to see him revisit the character.

SOURCE: Empire