We've had a lot of back and forth on Matt Damon returning to the Bourne franchise since his supposed last outing in 2007's THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM and now we've got official word from the man himself. Yesterday, while celebrating their recent Project Greenlight venture, both Damon and Ben Affleck talked to E! Online and let slip that Jason Bourne would be returning to the big screen in 2016 with Damon saying:
"Yes, next year. 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 has indeed made it clear that the only way he'd do another Bourne film is with Greengrass involved, so with that box checked and his involvement confirmed, you can now rest easy that the film is, in fact, happening. Damon is currently in pre-production for Ridley Scott's THE MARTIAN and has a few other projects on the line, which is fine as he has plenty of time between now and a 2016 release date to be "Bourne again." Interestingly, director Justin Lin is also preparing a sequel to the spinoff series THE BOURNE LEGACY with Jeremy Renner to also debut in 2016. It's unclear how either film will tie in to one another, but it will certainly be interesting. Personally, I'd love to see both Renner and Damon team up to whup some collective ass, but that's just me.
We'll update you as this continues to develop. You can see Matt Damon currently in INTERSTELLAR, now in theaters.