Narrowing the possibilities for Matt Damon’s successor in The Bourne Legacy

As you might expect, the “wish list” for an actor to replace Matt Damon as Jason Bourne (in the alias only — it’ll be a different character) had just about every hunky 20-something in Hollywood.

Now the sorta-sequel THE BOURNE LEGACY is looking closer at a handful of up-and-comers who will actually be testing out for the role soon.

According to Deadline, those fortunate few include Garrett Hedlund (TRON LEGACY), Dominic Cooper (CAPTAIN AMERICA’s Howard Stark), Luke Evans (TAMARA DREWE, upcoming IMMORTALS) and hard-working Aussie Joel Edgerton (ANIMAL KINGDOM, upcoming THE THING prequel).

Apparently Shia LaBeouf and Taylor Kitsch are still also among the possibilities, as is Logan Marshall-Green, who recently landed a big role in Ridley Scott’s ALIEN precursor PROMETHEUS.

Writer-director Tony Gilroy (MICHAEL CLAYTON) and Universal will revisit the established framework of the BOURNE franchise itself, bringing in a new rogue superspy and leaving the door open for Damon to conceivably come back later. The studio is obviously hoping for a comparatively bargain-budget blockbuster that capitalizes on the brand, and wants the new BOURNE in theaters for August 2012.