This is a surprise.
Matt Damon is returning to the Bourne series, reprising his role as the super-soldier/assassin/amnesiac with a desire for the truth, Jason Bourne. According to Deadline, and unconfirmed as of yet by Universal, Damon will return alongside the director of the two latter films of the Bourne Trilogy (which I guess is no longer applicable, so we’ll say films 2 and 3 in the Bourne series), Paul Greengrass. Both have said many times over the past years they were not interested in returning to the Bourne series, though such statements are always amenable to future pay increases (we know this formula: franchise = $ = more franchise = more $).
There is an obvious question that must be asked upon this news: What happens to Jeremy Renner? Renner starred in the spin-off (reboot? I don’t even know anymore) The Bourne Legacy, which I thought cemented Renner’s presence as a late-comer to yet another action/sci-fi blockbuster series (see: Avengers, Mission Impossible).
The Renner version of the Bourne series was set to have a sequel released in July 2016, directed by the very talented Justin Lin. It looks as though the Lin/Renner spot in the Universal Studios calendar is now being handed over to Greengrass and Damon. Which is difficult to believe considering how close that date actually is in the Hollywood Blockbuster world for two people as busy as Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass. But I guess you can’t blame Universal for being eager to get Damon’s Bourne back to the theater.
How Jason Bourne will return, or why, is of course as of yet unknown. Greengrass made no secret of his opinion that after Jason Bourne regained his memory his character would have no story left to tell. A statement I tend to agree with. The Bourne Trilogy is perhaps the best organized action-series I’ve seen in terms of pure story telling, and it felt complete until the perfectly adequate but wholly unnecessary Bourne Legacy appeared.
The Bourne Trilogy was that rare series in which each entry felt new and exciting to watch, and yet each subsequent film is superior to the previous. Today, The Bourne Ultimatum ranks among the best spy/military/thriller/post-9-11/paranoia/government/international-turmoil films of the new millennium (that’s saying something since this is a HUGE genre). I didn’t want the Bourne Legacy to be made not because I don’t like Jeremy Renner or Tony Gilroy (I like both), but because I wanted the Bourne world to come to the end Greengrass gave it.
Still, I’d be lying, if I said the prospect of seeing Damon as Bourne directed by Greengrass was not exciting. Welcome back Jason Bourne.
