Though the news ostensibly broke back in September, Matt Damon has now confirmed his return as Jason Bourne.
“Yes, [I'm doing it] next year,” Damon told E! News over the weekend. “It'll be in 2016 when the movie will actually come out. [Director] Paul Greengrass is going to do another one and that's all I ever said. I just needed him to say yes.”
Damon and Greengrass previously worked together on “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum,” the second and third films in the long-running action franchise. A fourth entry starring Jeremy Renner as agent Aaron Cross was released in 2012, and a followup to that spinoff (set to be directed by “Fast and Furious” helmer Justin Lin) is reportedly still in the works despite being bumped from its July 16, 2016 release date by the Damon-Greengrass reteam.
Greengrass previously stated that he had no interest in returning for another film, telling Deadline in a 2013 interview:
“I couldn”t come up with an idea [for a 'Bourne Ultimatum' sequel], and the business reality of franchises is that when a studio has a 'Bourne,' they”re obliged to make one every couple of years. I discovered in my heart I didn”t have another one in me. I would be going through the motions and I could never do that. … The best thing was to move on, have someone else come in and make their mark on it.”
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