Even with the success of The Bourne Legacy people are still interested in Matt Damon returning to the Bourne franchise, and you can understand why, but he's not been so keen and I wonder if he will ever decide to return.

Speaking once more about it he's expressed his concerns at the difficulty of returning now that The Bourne Legacy has appeared, personally I can't see why it would be difficult but he seems reluctant about the entire idea.

Matt Damon has been pretty clear about his involvement in Bourne before, always saying that without Paul Greengrass behind the wheel he's not doing it. Well one good thing is that he seems to be fading on that idea, but he's still saying that he doesn't see him coming back to the franchise although now it appears to be because of what The Bourne Legacy (Filmstalker review) has done.

He was asked if he would return to the Bourne character and make another film, a question I'm sure he still gets asked all the time and it must annoy him a little considering that he has done other work since. Here's what he said regarding The Bourne Legacy and his potential return:

"I think it's going to make it harder for us to make another one. I'm just trying to figure out like… Because they used our characters, anything that happens in that world, that's the 'Bourne' world now. So the pill popping and all that stuff happens.

The interviewer from article in The Playlist through JoBlo does point out that this new character that Jeremy Renner plays in The Bourne Legacy (Filmstalker review) is from a different era of the project to which Damon replies:

"Right, I'm from a different program"

Then the interviewer leads him off into the possibility of working with the Renner character in a joint film, leading him away from the real question that fans of the original Bourne want to hear:

"I don't know what that story would be. I love Jeremy and I'm a huge fan of him and I know him personally and love him outside of work, too. But I just don't know what that story would be. I could never see Bourne teaming up with anyone. And all he said was - he wanted out, he wanted out, he wanted out. So how do you get that character going again?"

I think he's a little hung up on what The Bourne Legacy has done and yet I think it's done what it's needed to do to keep the franchise going perfectly. It's clear that the program in that film is a completely separate one to the Bourne program and that the development of Bourne and his fellow team was a forerunner to what this new program has done.

They have enhanced the work of that program with drugs and genetic manipulation, although not to some X-Men science fiction degree, and they've done all this while referencing the original and leaving it untouched.

I think there's plenty of scope to return and the two stories can continue together without harming one another.

Why can't Bourne return again? Of course he wants out but as we know from the films you are never out, they always pull you back in - oh wait, is that another organisation? You know what I mean.

In another way you could view it as the pressure will be off Bourne because the new, more dangerous version of him is out and about and the government need to focus their resources on him.

Really though, there's nothing to stop Damon coming back as Bourne, and I'm sure Tony Gilroy could develop the idea for him as easily as he has a new franchise without him.