Universal wants Matt Damon to make Bourne sequels forever and ever and EVER

Jason Bourne marks the return of Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass to the action franchise following a lengthy break during which we had The Bourne Legacy. You know, the spin-off starring Hawkeye. Judging by the punchy trailers and clips released so far the sequel is shaping up to be a balls-to-the-wall frenzy. While reviews have yet to emerge, Universal is already confident that Damon and Greengrass are key to future Bourne installments.

“Even though Matt and Paul had been very definitive about not wanting to come back, we weren’t really willing to submit to that,” Universal chairwoman Donna Langley told the New York Times jokingly, putting an end to rumored plans for another Jeremy Renner-led sequel. She added: “Look, here’s what I think the goal is: to keep Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass doing Bourne movies till they can’t do them anymore."

That's... a lot of Bourne. It makes you wonder how many more conspiracies he can get caught up in before things start to get a bit stale. That's exactly why Damon and Greengrass stepped away from the series in the first place, after feeling they'd done all they could with the character. That changed for Damon over time. “At a certain point, I said to Paul, ‘People really want to see this movie, and that’s not something to turn our noses up at…Having made movies that didn’t find an audience, I didn’t want to thumb our nose at this opportunity.”

We're a week out from Jason Bourne hitting theaters, and typically, once opening weekend figures are in that's when studios announce sequels. Bearing in mind Langley's enthusiasm to keep Damon and Greengrass churning out movies until they drop, here's what the director said: “Last time I made the mistake of saying never again, which proved not to be true. So I’m not going to say that... I hope the franchise lives on, because I’ve got immense affection for it.”

What I want to know is when that sequel IS announced will it be called... Bourne Again? I'll get my coat.

Directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Matt Damon, Alicia Vikander, Julia Stiles, Vincent Cassel, Tommy Lee Jones, and Riz Ahmed, Jason Bourne is released in UK cinemas on July 27, 2016 before opening in US theatres a day later on July 29, 2016.

Images: Universal Pictures

Gem Seddon is GamesRadar+'s west coast Entertainment News Reporter, working to keep all of you updated on all of the latest and greatest movies and shows on streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Outside of entertainment journalism, Gem can frequently be found writing about the alternative health and wellness industry, and obsessing over all things Aliens and Terminator on Twitter.