After a long search, Universal Pictures and director Tony Gilroy have found their lead for The Bourne Legacy, which is meant to spinoff from the franchise that introduced Matt Damon's Jason Bourne character, and it is... Jeremy Renner.

The star of Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker, who was also nominated for Ben Affleck's The Town, co-stars with Tom Cruise in the upcoming Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol and is playing Hawkeye in Joss Whedon's The Avengers, is expected to sign on as a new undisclosed government operative who has come out of a program even more dangerous than the one that spawned Jason Bourne in the new film that begins production in September.

Deadline mentions that the studio tested many other actors including Joel Edgerton from the upcoming The Thing prequel, Dominic Cooper, Garrett Hedlund from TRON: Legacy, Luke Evans, and even Renner's Hurt Locker co-star Anthony Mackie.

Latino Review first broke the news that an offer was going out to Renner earlier this month.