Matt Damon: Post-Financial Crisis Jason Bourne In ‘Dark, Tortured Place’

Matt Damon recently sat down with Entertainment Weekly to talk about the fifth (or arguably fourth) installment of the Bourne Identity franchise, describing his character as darker and more tortured. Although the secrecy behind the film has been tight, the actor gave a few hints about what audiences could expect this summer.

Entertainment Weekly also revealed the first image released from the film, which seems to support Damon’s gloomy description.

Exclusive: Matt Damon offers a glimpse into the world of #Bourne5: https://t.co/uiEy5J0iuz pic.twitter.com/XERtyBvvTl

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) December 30, 2015

The last time moviegoers saw Jason Bourne was in 2007 with The Bourne Ultimatum. In the film setting, the year was 2004. The new film will bring the franchise up to the present-day, and a lot has happened to darken the Bourne’s state of mind according to Matt Damon.

“There’s been the financial collapse, the great recession, all these issues of cyberwarfare and civil liberties.”

He added that all these problems have left Jason in a “dark and tortured place.”

In that 12-year gap, the character has been off-the-grid entirely. How and why he returns is still unknown.

Matt Damon did not appear in the 2012 spin-off film The Bourne Legacy starring Jeremy Renner, even though pictures of Jason Bourne were shown throughout. Many fans blame Damon’s absence for The Bourne Legacy’s poor reception from audiences and critics. It is the lowest rated Bourne movie on both IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

At the time, Matt Damon explained he would not return to the role unless Paul Greengrass were in the director’s seat. But according to Collider, the director repeatedly said there was no creative room left in the Bourne universe for another movie after Ultimatum.

As a result, director Justin Lin was brought in to direct a Bourne Legacy sequel with Jeremy Renner. Now for the newest Bourne installment, both Greengrass and Damon are back and writing the screenplay together. So where does that leave the Bourne Legacy sequel?

That continues to be a mystery. The Justin Lin film was set to debut in the summer of 2016, about the same time Greengrass’s movie is now scheduled to hit theaters, meaning the Bourne Legacy sequel is destined to be delayed. Whether or not it’s going to be put off indefinitely likely depends on how Damon and Greengrass do with a 12-year-older and darker Jason Bourne.

There are a few other details about the new movie. Julia Stiles will return as Nicky Parsons; Tommy Lee Jones will play a new CIA agent, and Alicia Vikander from Ex Machina will play a new female lead. Likewise, Vincent Cassel will be the main villain.

According to Cinema Blend, it’s not clear who Cassel’s character is, but the word traveling around the Internet is that he’ll be an assassin trying to take Bourne down.

If Jason survives Cassel, what does the future hold?

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, one idea is to have him fight Batman. When discussing his friend Ben Affleck playing Bruce Wayne in the upcoming Batman v Superman with E!, Matt Damon reportedly joked that Batman would have little chance against Jason Bourne.

“Jason Bourne would kick the s**t out of Batman — absolutely!… Batman’s gotta take on Superman first. If he could beat him then maybe he could take on Jason Bourne.”

The actor then said he believed Affleck would do a great job with the movie, which premieres in March.

The still untitled Bourne 5 starring Matt Damon is schedule to hit theaters July 29.

[Photo by Koichi Kamoshida/Getty Images]