Released in 2012, “The Bourne Legacy” was an obvious attempt to have Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross take over for Jason Bourne as the center of the franchise. However, that new future was fairly quickly dashed when Matt Damon returned to the Bourne role for the film, “Jason Bourne.” But according to Renner, that wasn’t always the case. In fact, he tried to have a team-up film.
Speaking on the Happy. Sad. Confused. podcast, where he hyped up Season 3 of his series, “The Mayor of Kingstown,” Jeremy Renner talked about his appearance in the ‘Bourne’ franchise. If it were up to Renner, he would have continued with the franchise and integrated Damon along with him.
“We got pretty far, to the point that all of a sudden [Paul] Greengrass and [Matt] Damon put on together and that got…well…” he trailed off, dropping his head down in dejection. “[It’s like], ‘Let’s work together!’ Because we wanted to pivot and get both parallel universes together.”
“That was always my idea,” Renner confirmed about teaming up Jason Bourne with his Aaron Cross character. “To get us together, and pit us against each other, and then we realize, ‘What are we doing? You and I together can go smash all of the [bad guys]. Like, let’s go after them.’ Now you got Bourne and Cross together. It’s a good duo, right? It would have been pretty badass.”
Unfortunately, for Renner, the ‘Bourne’ franchise continued without him. “Jason Bourne” was released in 2016, and there’s now a bit of confusion about where the franchise is going now. Edward Berger is attached to direct a film that could serve as a bit of a reboot, while Damon is said to potentially be developing another sequel. Regardless, it doesn’t seem as if Renner is involved in either potential film.