Bourne series screenwriter and newly appointed director of The Bourne Legacy Tony Gilroy recently spoke to Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells to clarify a few things regarding the film.
First up, no Matt Damon, sorry. There will be a new hero who encounters new levels of conspiracy that were all triggered by stuff Jason Bourne did in the previous trilogy.
Says Gilroy, "The easiest way to think of it is an expansion or a reveal. Jason Bourne will not be in this film, but he's very much alive. I'm building a legend and an environment and a wider conspiracy... the world we're making enhances and advances and invites Jason Bourne's return [down the road]. Everything you saw in the first three films actually happened, and everyone who got into will be rewarded for paying attention. We're going to show you the bigger picture, the bigger canvas."
I've never read a Star Wars expanded universe book, but I always imagined they were about, like, Gibb Spacesmasher, Luke's neighbor on Tatooine who joins the rebels and encounters new Imperial Hypertroopers on the planet Schmidgeshmadge at the same time the Battle of Yavin is going on. From what Gilroy says, Bourne Legacy will be akin to an a expanded universe Bourne entry dealing with side characters and events concurrent with the other films.
Although it's not too late to take some of my earlier suggestions for a Damon-less Bourne, it is exciting that in the age of the prequel and the reboot that Gilroy is inventing a new sub-genre, which I call the "quasiquel". Patent pending.
