Despite rumors that the Bourne franchise would be rebooted, it seems Matt Damon is game for another turn playing the iconic action spy hero.
Damon was out promoting the release of The Odyssey and recently appeared on ESPN's The Rich EisenShow, where the conversation turned to what is arguably Damon's most iconic action role.
When asked to confirm if he was interested in making a new Bourne film, Damon surprisingly replied, "Sure- yeah, yeah. I'm talking to a great director named Edward Berger. He did All Is Quiet on the Western Front; he's a wonderful director. We're talking about it and we're just trying to nal the story down."
Damon went on to add, "I'd love to do it, but it's just that thing where if we do it, we want it to be like the first three. And it's tough, because it's not built like a James Bond where every movie is its own mission and you can even change the person playing Bond. It's a linear story so that makes it more challenging to do a sequel where you're giving people what they want but also enough new stuff."
The Bourne talk starts at the 16:12 minute mark in the video below.
Back in August 2025, after film rights reverted to the estate of author Robert Ludlum, it was Universal Pictures that managed to resecure the film rights "in perpetuity," after fending off Amazon, Apple, and Netflix.
At the time, Universal Pictures President Peter Cramer shared, "The Bourne franchise reshaped the spy genre with groundbreaking action films. We’re energized to expand this universe with new stories for global audiences."
Jeffrey Weiner, chairman and CEO of Captivate Entertainment and the executor of Ludlum’s estate, added, "We are thrilled that the Bourne franchise will remain at Universal. We look forward to working with the Universal team to expand the Bourne franchise across Universal’s varied platforms."
The Bourne movies trace their origins back to Robert Ludlum’s spy novels from the 1980s. While the first three films borrow their titles from Ludlum's books with The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum, their storylines diverge heavily from Ludlum’s original plots.
Following Robert Ludlum’s passing, the Bourne book series lived on through new authors such as Eric Van Lustbader and Brian Freeman, who expanded the franchise with numerous additional novels.
Matt Damon has portrayed Jason Bourne in four of the franchise’s five films. The exception is The Bourne Legacy (2012), which starred Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross, a new operative from a separate black-ops program.