As reported this past week, the fifth Bourne film starring Jeremy Renner (The Avengers) has been delayed by Universal Pictures for over a year. Pushed back to the summer of 2016, much speculation and rumour has since flown around as to the reason for the delay.
Latino-Review has apparently got wind of what is really going on with the sequel. Their source claims the delay is because Damon has agreed to reprising his role as Jason Bourne, and is set to return for Bourne 5, directed by Fast & Furious alum Justin Lin.
Damon had always maintained that he would only ever return to Bourne if previous director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum) was to return also. He said: “I love that character and I’d love to see what happened to him”.
With a global gross of just $276million (Ultimatum had finished the Damon-led trilogy with $440million worldwide), the Renner vehicle The Bourne Legacy, which was supposed to launch a new strand of the franchise, under-performed against the other films.
Is re-adding Damon to the Bourne franchise a good idea, or are the producers clutching at straws to stand the best chance of protecting their franchise? We await official news on Damon’s involvement before we jump the gun on this one.
UPDATE – According to producer Frank Marshall, there’s no truth to the report that Matt Damon will be back for Bourne 5, with Marshall telling THR that: “It’s simply not true. [Director] Justin Lin is working with Andrew Baldwin on an Aaron Cross script/story that they pitched us a few months ago. I talk to Justin all the time and the script is not ready. It’s a summer movie, and if we don’t start pre-production now, we can’t make next summer. Therefore, it’s a wise decision to move to 2016.”
Originally published June 20, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
