The Bourne franchise is one of the most famous action-thriller franchises in the industry based on the character Jason Bourne who is portrayed by Matt Damon in the movies. It has now been over 2 decades since the first installment was released and the franchise has released 5 movies ever since then.
Although he was the face of the franchise, Matt Damon decided to leave the franchise after making the 3rd movie, The Bourne Ultimatum. The Last Duel actor once revealed in an interview that he allegedly decided to leave the franchise because he felt that the series had run its course and Paul Greengrass also decided to step down as the director of the series.
As a result, Jeremy Renner was cast as the protagonist of the 4th movie of the franchise, The Bourne Legacy. Damon once also revealed that despite his respect for Renner, he cannot see himself working together with the Hawkeye actor in a Bourne movie.
Matt Damon opened up about leaving the Bourne franchise
The Bourne Legacy was the only movie in the Bourne franchise where Matt Damon did not star as the titular character. The first three movies of the franchise were based on Robert Ludlum’s novels where the CIA was trying to get rid of an assassin[Jason Bourne] who has lost his memories. However, by the end of the 3rd movie, Bourne had recovered his memories and dealt with the people who were trying to kill him. Therefore, Damon felt like there wasn’t anything that can be done with the story anymore.
After the release of The Bourne Legacy, Matt Damon further revealed that the studio wanted to get another Bourne movie out as soon as possible but he and the director, Paul Greengrass were allegedly out of ideas for making a new movie. He said,
“The studio had a deal with the Ludlum estate and they had to get a ‘Bourne’ movie out. So they said to us, ‘Why don’t you guys do one?’ And we said, ‘We don’t know what to do!’ So once they realized we weren’t going to solve that problem, they went a totally different way.”
Therefore the studio decided to give the movie to the director Tony Gilroy and Jeremy Renner was cast in the lead role of The Bourne Legacy.
The Downsizing actor was skeptical about making a movie with Jeremy Renner
Matt Damon was skeptical of reprising his role as Jason Bourne in the franchise and working with Jeremy Renner in a Bourne movie. After the release of The Bourne Ultimatum, Damon was once asked if would like to work with Renner in a possible sequel. He said,
“I don’t know what that story would be. I love Jeremy and I’m a huge fan of him and I know him personally and love him outside of work, too. But I just don’t know what that story would be. I could never see Bourne teaming up with anyone. And all he said was – he wanted out, he wanted out, he wanted out. So how do you get that character going again?”
All 5 movies of the Bourne franchise are currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Source: IndieWire
