Well, it didn’t take long after I posted that article about Joel Edgerton as writer/director Tony Gilroy’s new favorite to lead The Bourne Legacy for it to become old news as Deadline reports Jeremy Renner has officially signed on.
Renner is not replacing Matt Damon who starred as the titular character in the first three films in the franchise, instead he’ll be playing a character named Martin, an operative from a covert government program that is even more dangerous than the Treadstone brainwashing program that hatched Bourne.
This marks Renner’s third major franchise role since being nominated for an Oscar for The Hurt Locker as he is starring oppositeTom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol later this year and it is anticipated he may be taking over for the franchise afterward. He is also playing the character of Hawkeye in Marvel’s The Avengers feature in 2012, a character Marvel would look to spin-off based on the film’s success.
Filming on The Bourne Legacy is currently expected to begin in July for a planned August 3, 2012.
