There are still many people out there who absolutely refuse to see a Jason Bourne movie without Matt Damon, but the more news we hear about the spin-off, the better it looks. In addition to having Tony Gilroy writing and directing (he wrote the first three Bourne movies as well), Jeremy Renner is attached to star and Rachel Weisz, Oscar Issac and Edward Norton are signed on as the female lead, fellow assassin and villain, respectively. One promise that the project has been making from the beginning, however, is that they aren't creating a new universe, but rather following another character in the same world. Today's casting news confirms that will be the case.
Variety has learned that Joan Allen and Albert Finney are both now in talks to reprise their franchise roles in The Bourne Legacy. Should they complete their deals, Allen will return as Pam Landy for the third time while Finney will once again appear as Dr. Albert Hirsch. In the previous films Landy showed herself as an inside ally of Jason Bourne's, helping him expose the convert operations that turned him into an elite assassin. Hirsch, on the other hand, plays for the opposite team, as he was the man responsible for turning David Webb into Jason Bourne.
One of the most interesting aspects of the Bourne franchise is that, unlike any other franchise in history, each movie in the series has been better than the last. With director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon not returning Universal has lost some considerable talent, but provided that they stay true to the world and continue hitting points that made the first three movies so successful it could still succeed. At this point, the biggest hurdle is trying to convince the mass audience that Jeremy Renner isn't playing Jason Bourne.
