‘Jason Bourne’ Cast, Updates: Matt Damon Loves Playing the Amnesiac Spy; Vincent Cassel Talks New Villain

‘Jason Bourne’ is set to feature the return of Matt Damon as the titular protagonist. Damon expressed his fondness for the character and is excited to work with director Paul Greengrass once more. Meanwhile, Vincent Cassel talked about his new villain and admitted that he was not the stereotypical bad guy in the film.

A featurette posted on Time offered a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the upcoming film in the action franchise as well as some interview footage of Damon as he returns to play the titular amnesiac spy Jason Bourne.

Damon says in the featurette, “Every airport I’m in or every time I’m walking down the street and somebody stops me – that’s the first question... Are you gonna do another one of those Bourne movies?” He adds, “I love making these movies. And I don’t mind being followed around by Jason Bourne. I like Jason Bourne. It’s been a defining role in my life so, I mean, I’ve always been incredibly grateful for giving me the part, you know, 16 years ago.”

The 45-year old actor first portrayed Jason Bourne in Doug Liman’s 2002 release ‘The Bourne Identity’, the first in the popular action series featuring a CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss who desperately searches for his real identity. Damon went on to star in the Paul Greengrass-directed sequels ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ (2004) and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum (2007).

Damon skipped out on the franchise’s fourth installment, ‘The Bourne Legacy’, and was replaced by Jeremy Renner as lead protagonist. Unlike its three predecessors, the fourth film focused on black ops agent Aaron Cross as he ran for his life following Bourne’s public exposure of Operation Treadstone and Operation Blackbriar.

Joining Damon in the fifth film are Julia Stiles, Tommy Lee Jones, Riz Ahmed, Alicia Vikander, and Vincent Cassel. Cassel will be playing a yet unnamed assassin. According to SBS, Cassel considered himself lucky to be part of the new project, which he considered “one of the classiest film franchises on the planet”.

He said, “[Greengrass] kept on saying, ‘It’s a popcorn movie, it’s a popcorn movie’ but the way he talks about it, it is a real directing process… He comes from documentary, you know, so he’s looking for that flavour, looking for those non-realistic things, to make them look real. It is not an easy task but he does it the best.”

The 49-year old French actor also revealed that his villain wasn’t the stereotypical bad guy. He revealed, “These people are working for the government and the real villain is the government. We just work for it. That’s the case with these Bourne movies – they work for big, bad, dark systems, and they have to cope with it. Is Bourne a good guy? I don’t know.”

The four previous films in the franchise grossed a total of $1.2 billion at the worldwide box office, according to Box Office Mojo. ‘Bourne Ultimatum’ became the highest grossing film in the franchise after earning $442.8 million, followed by ‘Bourne Supremacy’ with $288.5 million, and then ‘Bourne Identity’ with $276.1 million. ‘Bourne Legacy’ was the lowest-earning film in the series with only $214 million in worldwide box office sales.

‘Jason Bourne’ opens in theaters on July 29, 2016. It is produced under Captivate Entertainment, Pearl Street Films and The Kennedy/Marshall Company and distributed by Universal Pictures. It has a production budget of $120 million.