Did Jason Bourne and Nicky Parsons once have a romantic relationship in The Bourne Identity franchise? The original Bourne Identity was noted for being a troubled production that went through several rounds of reshoots and re-edits, but it went on to have a lasting impact on the action genre. The staging of the film's visceral fight sequences and its grounded tone connected with viewers, and paved the way for James Bond's reinvention with Casino Royale. It also turned Matt Damon into an unlikely action hero.
Damon returned for two sequels before he and director Paul Greengrass announced they were done with the series. A spinoff dubbed The Bourne Legacy later arrived in 2012, which didn't feature Damon's title character and instead focused on a new agent played by Jeremy Renner. This entry is considered the franchise's weakest and failed to receive a direct sequel. Damon and Greengrass were later persuaded to return for 2016' Jason Bourne, and the franchise later received a TV spinoff called Treadstone, which was canceled after one season in 2020.
Another major character who recurred throughout The Bourne Identity series is Nicky Parsons, played by Julia Stiles. Nicky played a relatively small role in the first movie, where she worked for Treadstone in Paris monitoring its agents. She only had one brief scene with Damon's Bourne, but her role increased in The Bourne Supremacy and by 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum she was one of the main characters.
A key plot point of The Bourne Identity franchise is the title character's amnesia and struggle to recall his past. Despite holding her at gunpoint during an interrogation in the second movie, Nicky decides to help Bourne out during The Bourne Ultimatum. When he asks her why she implies they had some kind of romantic connection before his amnesia, but the movie never elaborates further on this.
Given the risks she takes to help Bourne it seems likely they did have a relationship before the events of The Bourne Identity, but while Nicky may still have lingering romantic feelings for Bourne, he doesn't appear to return them. Nicky later seeks him out again in Jason Bourne to supply information about his late father but is quickly killed by an assassin. It's a real shame the sequel couldn't find another reason to include Nicky other than to kill her after she kicks the plot in motion, and it seems the franchise will never conclusively reveal if her and Bourne's relationship was more than professional.