Universal Pictures
Two franchises starring Jeremy Renner are apparently going in opposite directions regarding what they want to do with the actor. For The Avengers, Renner is likely to never get a solo installment with his Marvel character, Hawkeye. He’s going to just be one of the ensemble in the big Avengers-title crossover blockbusters, and maybe he’ll show up on a future episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (if my guess about his recent Twitter tease is correct) or possibly a one-off short film at the very least. Then there’s the Bourne franchise, which he temporarily took over from Matt Damon until Damon announced his return for another sequel. We kept hearing that Renner’s character from the spin-off The Bourne Legacy would be in more movies, but once Damon’s next installment became a reality there was more assumption that the two stars would wind up sharing the screen in a crossover.
“We don’t have plans for that,” producer Frank Marshall told Collider this week. “They’re on separate tracks.” He also said he never says never and “you never know,” but at the moment the idea remains that Damon has his Jason Bourne movies and Renner has his Aaron Cross movies and probably never the twain shall meet. That shouldn’t be news worthy of its own post, but it is because it’s so shockingly against the grain of Hollywood right now. Everyone else is so intent on developing Marvel-like mega-franchises that it’s hard to believe that not only will the Bourne boys not team up or battle or both but that they won’t also meet up with the Fast and Furious guys, the Pitch Perfect gals, the Universal Monsters, King Kong, the Jurassic Park/World dinosaurs and Christian Grey for a massive party of a movie.
And while it’s great that Renner gets to be his own man in his own series, it’s also sort of another knock to his career that he seems to be thought not good enough for the “real” Bourne movies. That’s probably not the case, just what it looks like, even if his own starring vehicle should be the better deal anyway. I just keep expecting the Legacy series to be cancelled eventually. I’ll be disappointed, too, as I’m one of only a handful of people who really like the spin-off. A lot. Most of the world, though, won’t even care, especially while they’re getting Bourne 5 (or should it be Bourne 4 if we’re really making distinction between the series?) with Paul Greengrass back to direct. Greengrass is also co-writing the script with Damon and Oscar-winning Bourne franchise editor Christopher Rouse. That movie, whatever it’ll be titled, is due in theaters on July 29, 2016.