Jeremy Renner has been a rising star for a good few years now, and he’s finally deservedly getting the attention he deserves, having earned himself two successive Oscar nominations in the past two years.

With several huge upcoming roles in the form of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, The Avengers, and The Bourne Legacy, things are definitely looking on the up for the brilliant actor.

The last of these films, The Bourne Legacy, will see Renner taking up the leading role in the franchise that Matt Damon of course led for three films, with director Tony Gilroy taking the helm in place of Paul Greengrass. Alongside will be a fantastic supporting cast, including the likes of Edward Norton, Rachel Weisz, Oscar Isaac, and the return of Joan Allen and Albert Finney from the previous films.

Renner has been talking with Empire and teasing some excellent things about the project, surrounded in mystery, including some details about his character, and whether or not he’d be playing the same Jason Bourne character as Damon:

““My character is called Aaron Cross,” Renner told us, “but he ends up having a bunch of different names. For fans of the franchise, [The Bourne Legacy] has that same ticking clock, but it’s a new programme and new characters.”

So is Treadstone still involved? “Yeah, it’s that same deal, it’s just a new set of agents with a different leash. It’s the same tempo and pace but more expansive and bigger. The differences are pretty vast but you’ll know it’s a Bourne movie.””

More expansive sounds pretty sweet in my books, as I’m sure it will in yours too. Renner is setting himself up as something of a huge action star, with all of his upcoming movies having the potential to see the star at the centre of multiple franchises in the years to come, which I think is nothing but fantastic news.

The Bourne Legacy, the fourth film in the newly rebooting franchise currently in production, will be hitting our cinemas on 17th August next year, months after we’ll have seen Renner starring in The Avengers (on 27th April), Hansel and Gretel (on 2nd March), and Ghost Protocol (on 26th December this year). It’s going to be a brilliant nine months for a brilliant actor, and I can’t wait for it all to unfold.