The Bourne franchise is a significant part of Matt Damon’s career. The audience got to see Damon as Jason Bourne, and the films paved the way for him to work on many other excellent projects. The actor has been a member of the Bourne film series since the first installment, The Bourne Identity, was released in 2002.
The 52-year-old actor returned as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Supremacy in 2004, and then The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007. But soon Damon wanted to give up on the Bourne franchise, as he thought his time as Jason Bourne was up.
Matt Damon found it difficult to work on another Bourne movie
In 2007, Matt Damon made up his mind and explained that it was high time he said goodbye to his character Jason Bourne. Another shock for the Bourne series fans was when director Paul Greengrass also gave up on the director’s chair. Jeremy Renner replaced Damon as the male lead and Tony Gilroy was announced as the new director. Damon was asked during an interview, what made him part ways from The Bourne Legacy, and the 52-year-old actor said,
“I did see it. I think it’s going to make it harder for us to make another one. I’m just trying to figure out like… Because they used our characters, anything that happens in that world, that’s the ‘Bourne’ world now. So the pill-popping and all that stuff happens.”
Damon also stated another reason for his absence from Bourne 4. According to the Good Will Hunting actor, the producers wanted to do Bourne 4 because they were already under contract. When the producers asked Damon and Greengrass to reunite for the film, they had no idea how to go about it. So Damon stated that the producers went another route, and The Bourne Legacy was created.
Matt Damon stated that he is a big Jeremy Renner fan
The Bourne series’ creators had to make a decision and replace Damon in the film. They cast Jeremy Renner as the protagonist in The Bourne Legacy. Renner portrayed Aaron Cross in the film. When asked if he would do a film with Renner for the Bourne franchise, the Air actor gave a perplexing response, saying “I don’t know what that story would be.” Damon was also asked how he felt about the Wind River actor replacing him. To this, the 52-year-old actor said,
“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?”
Despite having a terrific storyline and cast, The Bourne Legacy did not perform very well at the box office. With a domestic revenue of $113.2 million, The Bourne Legacy was the lowest-earning installment. In 2016, Damon and director Greengrass were brought back for the 5th installment of the movie, Jason Bourne.
Source: Indie Wire
