Matt Damon last appeared in the Bourne movie franchise in 2007 with The Bourne Ultimatum, as he declined to be involved with the fourth installment, The Bourne Legacy, that Universal Pictures released in 2012. Jeremy Renner took over protagonist duties on Legacy, but the film only earned a lukewarm critical reception and saw a significant drop in worldwide grosses from Ultimatum (with Legacy taking in $276 million against Ultimatum's $443 million total).

Renner may one day reprise his Legacy role as Aaron Cross (perhaps in a film where Cross and Jason Bourne team-up), but that won't happen in the upcoming Bourne 5, which brings Damon back into the fold. Damon, who is currently out and about promoting his space adventure The Martian, has dropped a few more hints about where the Bourne franchise is headed next, in what will be the fifth installment overall.

Damon offered the following tease to NY Daily News, regarding what Jason Bourne's been up since last we saw him in Ultimatum:

“[Jason Bourne] has his memory back, but that doesn’t mean he knows everything. It’s 12 years since Jason Bourne has been on the grid. So we have to answer the questions, Where’s he been? What’s he doing? What gets him going again? So once we solved all that, then we had a movie.”

Damon had a hand in constructing the Bourne 5 script with Bourne Supremacy and Ultimatum helmsman Paul Greengrass (who's also back to direct Bourne 5), so the actor - who, lest you forget, is also an Oscar-winning screenwriter - is in a good position here to explore topical issues of interest to him. The original Bourne trilogy examined the political atmosphere of the 2000s, and Damon reiterated to the NY Daily News that Bourne 5 will move to the franchise into a "post-Edward Snowden world", in reference to the real-world Edward Snowden scandal where confidential government documents leaked to the public.

Jason Bourne 5 - Matt Damon Jeremy Renner Crossover

The Bourne 5 cast includes Julia Stiles, who will reprise her supporting role as ex-CIA agent Nicky Parson from the original Bourne movie trilogy. Stiles shall tie audiences to Jason Bourne's past, but a plethora of new, high-profile cast members have been recruited to move the franchise forward. That roster includes Oscar-winner Tommy Lee Jones as a seasoned CIA agent, Vincent Cassel (Black Swan) as a government assassin who's recruited to hunt down Bourne, and Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina) is an as-yet unidentified key role.

NEXT: Bourne 5 Begins Filming

Bourne 5 opens in U.S. theaters on July 29th, 2016.

Source: NY Daily News