Nearly 10 years off the market couldn't stop Jason Bourne from becoming one of 2016's biggest summer hits. So now, the franchise that once looked like it was going to be shelved after the non-Matt Damon starring installment, The Bourne Legacy, has become a hot property yet again. Universal, and the audience they cater to, seem primed and ready for another round of action, leaving folks to wonder when they'll see Damon kicking ass yet again. Sadly, the official answer to that question is, "not any time soon."
The hammer came down during a producer's roundtable held by The Hollywood Reporter, who got Matt Damon in a room with fellow producers like Darren Aronofsky, Marc Platt, and Frank Marshall, to talk about their various producing project for this year's awards consideration. And while Damon may be a producing talent behind the scenes, it's hard to ignore his return as the titular super spy of Jason Bourne. When asked if another sequel was currently in the works, he had the following to say:
Not right now. Those things are a massive undertaking. We started shooting that in September and finished in March. It's just big, with a massive second unit.
Six months of filming may not seem like a lot, but with those months being packed full of car crashes, leaps of faith, and other high flying stunts that the Bourne franchise is famous for, it tends to be more of an undertaking than that same amount of time on a less intensive film. Not to mention, with all of the work that Matt Damon has lined up for himself, such as any sort of awards campaign for his latest production, Manchester By The Sea, or promoting his upcoming film, The Great Wall, it's not like he'll have a lot of time to mount up again anyway. Which isn't exactly the worst thing, as the Bourne series could use a bit of a break to restructure itself.
With brand new villains, and Jeremy Renner's Aaron Cross still waiting for some sort of revival himself, the Bourne franchise needs to sort itself out internally. On top of any sort of work the franchise may do on continuity within, it'll also have to take into account the fact that Universal is building a cinematic universe with Bourne author Robert Ludlum's other works, and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in the lead. Pulling from two different pools of Ludlum's works may get confusing for the movie viewing public, so a strategy to either merge the two halves, or separate them into two easily marketed, yet unique, entities will have to be discussed and decided upon.
Jason Bourne will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on December 6th.
