One of Hollywood’s blockbuster action franchises, valued at $1.6 billion, the Bourne film series, starring top-notch A-lister, Matt Damon almost went downhill after its fourth installment. Damon led the first three installments, The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. However, decided to opt out of the franchise in 2012’s The Bourne Legacy after he found out Bourne veteran director Paul Greengrass wasn’t directing the fourth sequel.
The project went into the hands of director Tony Gilroy, starring Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross. It is the only sequel that doesn’t include the titular Jason Bourne by Matt Damon, and grossed at the lowest of all sequels, at $280 million, per The Numbers. Regardless, the Jeremy Renner-starrer was sanctioned for a sequel but never materialized. Director Justin Lin, who was appointed by Universal Studios for the sequel describes why.
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Jeremy Renner’s Bourne Legacy never got its potential sequel
After Tony Gilroy’s stint with The Bourne Legacy, Universal Studios eyed Fast and Furious director Justin Lin to helm a sequel to the Jeremy Renner-starrer. Sadly, the sequel never made it out of pre-production. Appearing on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, Justin Lin revealed why The Bourne Legacy sequel was scrapped despite progress being made. He said,
“It was after I left for ‘Fast 6’ and [Universal’s] Donna Langley reached out and said, ‘What do you think about ‘Bourne’ and I was like, ‘Oh man!’ and like, Renner’s amazing. And to this day, I still kinda miss what we were working on.”
The primary reason was Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass’s return to the franchise. After Damon, who is also the face of the franchise, decided to reprise his character as Jason Bourne, Universal Studios halted all other plans in the franchise and focused on the fifth sequel, 2016’s Jason Bourne.
Yet, Lin reminisced about his little time on the Bourne project, hailing veteran Bourne screenwriter, Andrew Baldwin, who was also hired for the sequel, and Jeremy Renner. Lin disclosed that he intends to incorporate some of the movie’s “stuff” in other projects of his own.
The Bourne Legacy was a kick in the gut for the Bourne franchise
Even though Lin was all emotional about The Bourne Legacy sequel falling apart, the franchise was taking a big risk there. Overall, The Bourne Legacy failed to match the standards set by Damon in the former installments. With a lukewarm reception and mixed reviews, it became the lowest-performing Bourne film at the domestic box office with $113 million, per The Numbers.
Probably not the Marvel star’s fault, but fans were simply not interested in watching Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross star in a Matt Damon-led franchise. The movie earned a 6.6 IMDb rating, unusual for other greatly-rated Bourne movies.
The final Bourne installment which marked the return of Matt Damon’s Bourne, 2016’s Jason Bourne was well-received, earning $416 million, the second-highest in the franchise.
