While fans may have moved on from the Matt Damon incarnation of the character, Prince William urged Paul Greengrass for another round with Bourne.
Prince William of Wales has been the President of BAFTA since February 2010. He is also making no secret of what his favorite movie series is. In a recent event that was hosted by BAFTA and the Royal African Society, Prince William would get to mingle with filmmakers as the event was a meeting with this year’s recipients of the Prince William BAFTA Bursary fund. This fund provides grants of up to $2,600 to help young people from underrepresented groups develop their careers in entertainment.
According to Variety, at the event, Prince William had met up with Paul Greengrass, who has directed The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum and Jason Bourne, and the Prince simply asked Greengrass, “Another Bourne, please?” In a report from The Times UK, Greengrass “laughed and shook his head.” He then replied, “Not for me, they need somebody younger, I’ve done my bit. But I hope they get somebody great and young to do it, I think they’re in the process.”
It was reported earlier this year that while Matt Damon doesn’t have much to offer in terms of what the next Bourne script may look like, he did note that its planned director Edward Berger “had an idea.” He added, “I would love to work with him! So he’s working on it, so I’m looking, I’m as anxious as you are to see if this thing – I hope it’s great, and that we can do it.” It should be noted that Matt Damon is not formally attached to return as Jason Bourne for any further entries in the action franchise, although his level of excitement does show he would be down to play the character for a fourth time.
However, now that Matt Damon is in his mid-50s, he recognizes he’s probably not willing to take the Liam Neeson route. “At a certain point, someone is going to need to take it over. I’m not getting any younger.” It was previously attempted to pass the franchise off when Jeremy Renner was spun-off with his own character in the Bourne world with 2012’s The Bourne Legacy. However, Damon and Greengrass would return to the franchise, even after Damon felt he was done with the character, and they made 2016’s Jason Bourne from their own concept.