It is not at all a scorched earth situation between Damon and the studio. Because Gilroy isn’t replacing Bourne with another actor, he has made it possible for Damon to eventually return for a big paycheck reprise. Gilroy has also helped remove the ticking rights clock that put pressure on Universal to get another Bourne film into production. The plot accepts everything that has happened in the trilogy and factors it into the storyline. I’m told the new protagonist will be another agent and probably a killer who went through experiences similar to Bourne’s or the character played by Clive Owen in the original Bourne.

He’s creating new characters and will tell a different story about the parent company behind the murderous shadow government operation Treadstone, which brainwashed covert agents like Bourne and turned them into ruthless killers. Actually, I’ve learned that Gilroy has smartly decided to remove the focus from Jason Bourne, and expand the franchise mythology.

When Deadline recently revealed that Gilroy would direct the script he has been working on since last spring, Universal would only say the picture was going forward whether or not Damon came back. The good: it turns out that even though Damon has been uninvolved in this new picture - he found out Tony Gilroy was directing when Deadline Hollywood broke the story - the film Gilroy is writing with his brother Dan has actually created some much-needed breathing room that insiders feel will make it easier for Damon to eventually come back for at least one more Jason Bourne turn. First, the bad: Matt Damon definitely isn’t returning to reprise Jason Bourne in The Bourne Legacy, the next installment of the series based on the Robert Ludlum thriller series that Universal Pictures is hellbent on putting into production next spring for an August, 2012 release. EXCLUSIVE: There’s bad news and good news on The Bourne Identity franchise front.

Jason bourne movies sequence