Edward Berger Confirms He’ll Direct Next Jason Bourne Film—If Matt Damon Returns

It's official—sort of. Edward Berger, the director who stormed the awards circuit with All Quiet on the Western Front, has now confirmed what's been whispered for months: he's set to direct the next Jason Bourne movie. But there's a caveat. “I will do it if Matt wants to do it,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. That's not hedging—it's a litmus test. No Damon, no Berger.

And that's the crossroads Universal is facing. The studio only just reacquired the Bourne rights after briefly losing them earlier this year when the Robert Ludlum estate started shopping the franchise to Skydance, Apple, and Netflix. The result? Bourne is back where he started, and Universal is clearly eyeing a fast-track reboot—or sequel. Deadline even notes that Joe Barton (Black Doves) has penned the latest draft, while Production Weekly teased a working title: The Bourne Dilemma.

Here's the kicker: Matt Damon had already hinted he'd be open for “one more” Bourne film. Combine that with Berger's prestige touch and Universal's need to restore some shine after the limp reception of 2016's Jason Bourne (a Paul Greengrass reunion that made $400M but left critics cold), and suddenly the pieces are falling into place.

Through five films, the Bourne franchise has banked $1.64 billion worldwide. The first trilogy—Identity (2002), Supremacy (2004), Ultimatum (2007)—defined post-9/11 action cinema with its handheld grit and nervous energy. You could feel the sweat, the paranoia, the exhaustion of being hunted. By contrast, the later entries (The Bourne Legacy in 2012 and Jason Bourne in 2016) felt like echoes, competent but hollow. Gorgeous in their craft, grating in their redundancy.

Berger, though, is a fascinating choice. His war epic All Quiet on the Western Front was brutal, restrained, and relentless—qualities that might actually sync beautifully with the existential despair of Jason Bourne. His condition—that Damon return, and that the story add something new to the canon—isn't just a creative line in the sand. It's a recognition of what killed Bourne last time: familiarity without urgency.

And that's why this matters. Action cinema has changed since Bourne rewired it in 2002. Audiences are oversaturated with glossy franchise spectacle. But a stripped-down, bruised-knuckled Bourne in Berger's hands? That could be the shock the genre needs again.