10 Movie Sequels That Lost The Main Characters

5. The Bourne Legacy

Who Disappeared? Jason Bourne (Matt Damon)

You might claim that The Bourne Legacy isn't a sequel in the same vein as the other films here, but it was initially intended to be the fourth film in the Jason Bourne series and it would have starred Matt Damon had the original plans come to fruition. But then by the time it came to the big screen, Damon was gone, Jason Bourne was nowhere to be seen (aside for his name above the door) and instead, Jeremy Renner was brought in to play brand new character Aaron Cross.

Bourne's shadow was cast over the film, as the fallout from black ops programmes Treadstone and Blackbriar is contained and everyone involved in the alternate programme creating supersoldiers like Cross is killed off. It didn't go down nearly as well as the first three films and Damon was eventually brought back for his fourth film.

Why He Didn't Return

Damon said very publicly that he wouldn't return to play Jason Bourne unless Paul Greengrass was directing and he had already bowed out. Tony Gilroy also suggested that there was no way he'd ever recast Bourne, so his stipulations on taking the directing job were that Damon wasn't to be involved at all, nor Greengrass nor Jason Bourne as a character in the interest of preserving everything that went before.

Damon still expressed his openness to playing Bourne again, but in 2010 had said they were at least 5 years away from doing so.