It’s been a while since Jason Bourne was on the board, kicking ass and taking the names of anyone who wanted to harm him or those closest to him. While director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon’s last turn at bat with 2016’s Jason Bourne was a disappointment, Universal apparently wants to reactivate its sleeper agent supreme.
And to be honest, I’m intrigued with who’s lined up to direct this next legacy-quel to one of the best action movies of all time. According to a new report from Deadline, the studio is talking with All Quiet On The Western Front director Edward Berger about the fifth sequel to 2002’s The Bourne Identity.
Of course, here's where things start to get a little more specific. At the moment, this project is in “early development” with no script, so it's far from a go picture at this moment. However, as soon as there’s a story in play, Matt Damon will allegedly be “first approached to return” to the role he helped make famous.
Considered one of the best movies of the 2000s, that first installment adapting Robert Ludlum’s iconic literary works eventually grew into a full-fledged saga. Unfortunately, by time the fifth movie rolled around, it felt like the magic had faded. In fact, depending on who you talk to, the Bourne movies ranked tend to have Jason Bourne either at dead last or slightly above The Bourne Legacy.
Which is why the fresh choice of potential helming talent has me excited. Edward Berger’s 2023 Academy Award winner was heralded as a visceral experience that lived up to the hype. If the same eye for warfare in All Quiet on the Western Front was applied to Jason Bourne’s life trying to evade assassins, as well as government agents foreign and domestic, this could be the fresh blood the Bourne movies need.
Much like the James Bond movies, this would-be legacy franchise needs to lock into what fans want and need now. That could mean casting a new lead outside of Matt Damon and rebooting the entire continuity to square one. It's something to consider as bringing Damon back into Bourne is not only not a given, it might not even be the silver bullet Universal thinks it would be in a post-Jason Bourne world.
Of course, it’s time to reel in expectations on either side back in just a bit. For the moment, development on a Jason Bourne follow-up is so early, even Bourne himself probably doesn’t sense it. It’s only a matter of time, as the world never seems to want to let this amnesiac super spy rest.
While it’s early days for the next potential chapter in the Bourne series, you can catch up with all of his previous adventures uncovering the world of the Treadstone program. The first three Bourne films will soon be online for those with a Hulu subscription, starting December 1st.
