Ex Machina actress leaves Assassin’s Creed for new Jason Bourne movie

By Rick Marshall Published June 25, 2015

alicia vikander assassins creed jason bourne — Helga Esteb/Shutterstock

The upcoming Assassin’s Creed movie will need to find a new leading lady in a hurry, as Danish actress Alicia Vikander has departed the project just a month before it was expected to begin shooting.

Scheduling conflicts reportedly forced the Ex Machina actress to choose between Assassin’s Creed and the fifth installment of the Jason Bourne franchise, which is also expected to begin filming soon. According to Deadline, Vikander chose to star opposite Matt Damon in the Bourne sequel, which will be directed by Paul Greengrass and is scheduled to hit theaters July 29, 2016.

Little is known about the plot of the upcoming Bourne movie at this point, although it has been confirmed that Jeremy Renner’s character from the spinoff film The Bourne Legacy won’t be appearing in it.

The Assassin’s Creed movie, on the other hand, will be directed by Justin Kurzel and star Michael Fassbender in a big-screen adaptation of the hit game franchise. Fassbender will reportedly play a modern-day descendent of a member of a secret guild of assassins who is forced to tap into the genetic imprint of his lineage by the powerful, secret organization that has been at war with the assassins for centuries. The actor is expected to play both the contemporary version of his character and his ancestor. Assassin’s Creed is currently scheduled to hit theaters December 21, 2016.

Praised for her performance in Alex Garland’s sci-fi drama Ex Machina, Vikander will soon appear on the screen in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., as well as director Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl and Derek Cianfrance’s The Light Between Oceans, in which she’ll star opposite Fassbender. Vikander also earned rave reviews as a newcomer for her performance in Joe Wright’s 2012 film Anna Karenina, based on Leo Tolstoy’s celebrated novel about a young woman’s love affair in 19th-century Russia.

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