This is starting to get ridiculous. The summer of 2015 was already gearing up to be the most crowded summer for cinema in recent memory, but major studios just keep adding more films to the pile. Bourne 5, a currently untitled sequel to last year’s The Bourne Legacy as well as a second spin-off from the successful Bourne trilogy, has been scheduled by Universal Pictures to debut on August 14th, 2015.
The upcoming film, officially identified by Universal as Untitled Next ‘Bourne’ Chapter, will continue the story of Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), a super-soldier in the top-secret Operation Outcome (a sister program to Bourne’s Operation Treadstone) who goes on the run after the CIA honchos responsible for his training order him killed. In The Bourne Legacy, he rescued comely doctor Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), also marked for assassination, and barely survived various attempts on his life, sailing off into the sunset on a Philippines junk ship.
Whether Bourne 5 will incorporate a time-jump (à la The Bourne Supremacy) remains to be seen, but fans of the series can certainly expect more of the same high-octane, action-oriented storytelling delivered in previous installments, especially given that Fast & Furious helmer Justin Lin is sitting in the director’s chair this time around.
Currently, the only title scheduled to compete with Bourne 5 is kid-friendly sequel The Smurfs 3, but the entire summer is jam-packed with other franchise updates and would-be blockbusters.
In May, we’ll see the arrival of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mad Max: Fury Road and Brad Bird’s top-secret Disney project Tomorrowland. The next month, Jurassic World, The Fantastic Four, Pixar’s mind-bending Inside Out and Ted 2 will all compete for your hard-earned cash. July might be the most crowded month of the season; currently scheduled titles for then include Terminator, Despicable Me spin-off Minions, Batman vs. Superman, Ant-Man and Tim Burton’s creepy book adaptation Peregrine’s Home for Peculiars. That all brings us to August where, in addition to Bourne 5 and The Smurfs 3, we can expect to see a big-budgeted Assassin’s Creed adaptation starring Michael Fassbender.
Do you agree that 2015 will be one of the most crowded box office seasons on record? Will you be checking out this Bourne update, or does Jeremy Renner fall short when compared to previous series star Matt Damon? Let us know in the comments section.
Bourne 5 will land in theaters on August 14th, 2015.
