Matt Damon & Paul Greengrass Are Returning To The 'Bourne' Series

paul greengrass, bourne

Well, the writing has been on the wall for this one for a while. Latino Review reported a few months back that Matt Damon was circling a return to the ‘Bourne’ series. After all, the mooted “The Bourne Legacy” sequel was suddenly delayed an entire year just a few months ago. Before the speculation of Damon’s return could get much traction, longtime ‘Bourne’ producer Frank Marshall poured water over the whole rumor. But there were reasons for that.

For one, Jeremy Renner’s agents were blindsided by the premature news and nothing was signed or confirmed; Damon at the time was just open to the conversation. Marshall had to deny everything or upset a lot of people. Frankly, we’ve been hearing the same thing for months now (our ‘Bourne’ sources were the ones that helped us break the fact that Paul Greengrass was leaving the series way back when).

Part of the delay was that Damon needed script approval and he wasn’t about to sign on to just any old ‘Bourne’ story. Which is why the film was delayed an entire year. The first script commissioned was ok, but when Damon was open to returning, he’d need something better if he was going to agree to sign on. So to buy themselves time, ‘Bourne’ producers delayed the film a year in hopes that once the script came together, Damon would like it and agree to starring.

We’ve also heard that Damon had directorial approval and that Lin may not have stayed in the mix, but it’s possible they’ve come eye to eye with the story. Damon’s also a gentleman and stand-up guy, so expect “Bourne 5” to not just dismiss the story of Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross. Knowing Damon and his sensitivity to the current star of the film, ‘Bourne 5’ will continue as the Aaron Cross story, but will weave in a way for Jason Bourne to reenter the movie.

The untitled ‘Bourne 5’ movie is set to land in theaters on July 15, 2016. We definitely buy Latino Review‘s story and we assume it will be confirmed soon enough. Update: Deadline has confirmed the story. Damon is back, and holy crap, Paul Greengrass is rejoining the series. The trade also says the Damon/Greengrass version will be different from the Lin/Renner iteration that is apparently still in the works, but it will be delayed and will have to wait for the original team to go first. By the sounds of it, Marshall had to keep Lin and that camp in the dark this whole time so as not to upset the cart.