Matt Damon says Bourne isn’t built for endless sequels like James Bond — here’s why the next one is so hard
Matt Damon says a new Jason Bourne is stalled — this isn’t James Bond, and the franchise won’t move without a must-make story to bring him back. He lays out the hurdle keeping Bourne offscreen and the one fix that could change everything.
Matt Damon is not shutting the door on Jason Bourne, but he is being picky about what would get him back in that seat. And yes, he said all this while riding a fresh wave of acclaim from Christopher Nolan 's The Odyssey.
Where Bourne stands right now
On The Rich Eisen Show, Damon said there are real conversations happening about another Bourne movie with Edward Berger, the filmmaker behind All Quiet on the Western Front. Damon would love to do it, but the team is not moving an inch without a story that actually earns the sequel. In his view, you cannot just fire up the camera and hope nostalgia does the heavy lifting.
"It’s a tough challenge because Bourne isn't built like James Bond, where every movie is just a standalone mission."
That is the core issue. Bond resets with each lead and each era; Bourne does not. Those movies play like one long, continuous arc, which means whatever comes next has to carry real narrative and emotional weight. Fans have been asking for one more mission for years, but Damon sounds intent on protecting the character's throughline rather than doing a greatest-hits victory lap.
Meanwhile: Damon is busy conquering Homer
While Bourne simmers in development, Damon is front and center in Nolan's The Odyssey, playing Odysseus as both war-scarred tactician and exhausted king. The performance has drawn raves. Nolan has said Damon's commitment genuinely surprised him, and Ben Affleck called Damon after an early screening just to tell him how good he is this time out — a compliment Damon joked he has been waiting decades to hear.
The film is loaded with big names and is already being talked up as one of Nolan's most celebrated, sitting at a 96% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. The lineup includes:
- Matt Damon as Odysseus
- Tom Holland as Telemachus
- Samantha Morton as Penelope
- Robert Pattinson
- Lupita Nyong'o
- Anne Hathaway
- Zendaya
- ...and a handful of other heavy hitters rounding out the ensemble
So yes, Bourne might run again — with Berger steering and Damon on board if the script clears a pretty high bar — but for now Damon is reminding everyone why he is still a go-to lead by anchoring Nolan's Greek epic and then some.