A heated bidding war for the future of the Bourne franchise is over, so whether we need him or not, the amnesiac assassin is set to return
W
hat do you consider to be the end of Jason Bourne? For connoisseurs, Bourne’s story definitively ended in 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum, which masterfully wrapped up the story that began five years earlier with The Bourne Identity. For the less discerning viewer, it ended with 2016’s scraggy and inconsequential Jason Bourne. For the three people who watched the USA Network’s 2019 series Treadstone, it ended there. So which is it?
Trick question, because Jason Bourne is never actually going to end, ever. This week, NBCUniversal has won a bidding war to acquire all non-publishing rights to Robert Ludlum’s Bourne and Treadstone properties in perpetuity. The deal, described as “very large”, means that Bourne is now firmly as much a part of Universal as Jaws, Jurassic World and the Minions. It also means we are never getting rid of him. As the Universal Pictures president, Peter Cramer, said: “We’re energized to continue expanding the Bourne universe into the future with exciting new stories for global audiences.”
This is potentially very interesting news, because if any franchise needs a shot in the arm, it’s Bourne. While its first three movies are rightly regarded as peerless, things really went off the rails after that. There was 2012’s The Bourne Legacy, made without Matt Damon during that weird time where every franchise on Earth seemed to hire Jeremy Renner as its new face. There was 2016’s Jason Bourne, where Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon attempted to depict Bourne as a slightly narky nightclub bouncer. And then there was Treadstone, which didn’t feature Bourne at all and was canned after a single season.
