Paul Greengrass: 'Jeremy Renner was never a consideration for Jason Bourne'

Paul Greengrass didn't give a second thought to Matt Damon and Jeremy Renner’s Bourne characters meeting in the latest movie.

Matt helmed the role of Jason Bourne in the original trilogy, from 2002 until 2007, with Jeremy stepping in for the fourth instalment as new character Aaron Cross.

Filmmaker Paul, who directed two of Matt’s original Bourne movies, came back on board for the latest film, and admits adding Jeremy to the cast didn’t cross his mind.

“Never a consideration for this project,” he told cinemablend.com. “Jeremy is a great actor. I just wanted to tell a Jason Bourne story. That's all I wanted to tell, and that was all I was going to make. As for what happens in the future, frankly that's not my job.”

There have been numerous reports that Jeremy will be getting his own sequel, with Justin Lin attached to direct it. Universal were said to have been working on a script before Matt and Paul confirmed their returns to the franchise.

Jeremy has also previously said he’d be up for a crossover with Aaron Cross and Jason Bourne.

“Yeah, I mean in two seconds. I love that world. I love the character. If they want to do that, I’m in. there’s no ‘no’ coming from this direction,” he told screenrant.com in 2015.

However Bourne producer Frank Marshall isn’t so sure the two protagonists will ever meet on the big screen.

“They’re still two different projects, two different films,” he told slashfilm.com.

Jason Bourne is released in U.K. cinemas on 27 July (16) and in the U.S. two days later.