With the franchise finally gearing up to get back to the screen, Julia Stiles is weighing in on her potential Bourne 6 return. The Golden Globe and Emmy nominee has been with the Matt Damon-led action franchise since its first installment, The Bourne Identity, as Nicky Parsons, a logistics technician for the mysterious CIA black ops program Treadstone. Though initially only a minor role, Stiles’ Nicky would become a key figure in the rest of Damon’s Bourne trilogy, assisting him at various points in his efforts to discover his identity and expose the corruption of Treadstone.
During a recent interview with Screen Rant for the upcoming romantic comedy Chosen Family, Stiles was asked about her potential return in Bourne 6. The star acknowledged that it seems unlikely she will be back to play Nicky for the Damon-led sequel, primarily due to her character’s death in the previous installment, as any return would “have to be some sort of prequel thingy“:
I’ve just had déjà vu, because I feel like I’ve been having this conversation for the past 20 years, and this was the conversation that happened before each previous version. I’m like, “What?” It would have to be some sort of prequel thingy. I don’t know.
Though the multiple-award nominee would go on to say she was “not going to hold my breath” about the prospect of coming back for the next film, Stiles did express her gratitude at having been part of the Bourne franchise, particularly the opportunities it provided for her to travel around the globe. Check out what Stiles said below:
I’m not going to hold my breath, but I mean, I’m so happy to have been a part of that franchise, and it was the span of most of my adult life. So, I was very lucky to get to travel the world and be a part of a cool action movie. Very grateful.
What This Means For Bourne 6
Nicky’s Fate Isn’t Being Undone Anytime Soon
After both Damon and Stiles were absent from the Jeremy Renner-led spinoff The Bourne Legacy, the duo did come back for 2016’s Jason Bourne along with previous director Paul Greengrass. Unfortunately for fans of the franchise, only one of them would come out alive by the end of the sequel’s story, with Nicky’s efforts to expose the CIA’s black ops programs and inform Damon’s titular character about the information she learned of his Treadstone recruitment and his father’s role in the program leading to her being killed by the Blackbriar assassin known as The Asset.
Though the movie was confirmed to be in the early stages of development in late 2023, there’s still not much known about Bourne 6‘s story, with the only major update coming in February 2024 when Damon confirmed his interest in returning, though was still waiting on a script. Even still, regardless of where the story picks up from the prior movie, Nicky’s return for the sequel would risk being the first time a character was outright brought back from the dead in the franchise.
Throughout much of Damon’s Bourne tenure, his resourceful assassin was frequently seen as having either come back from the brink of death or surviving seemingly impossible situations, but even as others thought him to be dead, it was always still shown onscreen how Bourne survived. Other characters, meanwhile, have remained dead in the wake of their fatal wounds, one of the more notable being that of Marie’s death in The Bourne Supremacy. As such, barring any kind of flashback sequences, it would make sense for Stiles’ Nicky not to return, as it would take away from the grounded stakes of the previous films.
Our Take On Nicky’s Bourne 6 Absence
The Duo’s Story Ended Conclusively, If Disappointingly
Though I would certainly have enjoyed seeing both Damon and Stiles continue in the franchise after the 2016 movie, particularly as I thought Nicky was always an underrated supporting figure in the original trilogy, it’s probably for the best she won’t be back in the next installment. Her death was certainly a disappointment, but by Jason Bourne‘s ending, Nicky’s arc did have some closure with the titular assassin, as Damon’s character finally learned the truth of his past, all of which began with their reunion.
If anything, Nicky’s absence from Bourne 6 could better establish the next movie as being a proper passing-of-the-torch between Damon and a new lead actor, or a more definitive ending for the series. After Ultimatum, there was an attempt to keep the franchise alive beyond Damon with Renner’s Legacy, but with a muted response to it, partly due to the original Oscar-winning star’s absence, it may prove more successful if the next installment finds the two teaming up, and subsequently sends Damon’s character off into the sunset.
Jason Bourne
The Bourne Franchise is an action-thriller series conceived initially by Robert Ludlum in the Bourne novel series. The film adaptations began with The Bourne Identity in 2002 with Matt Damon starring as Jason Bourne, a man who, after regaining his memories, learns that he was a top CIA assassin, with his former employer trying to kill him to tie up loose ends. The mantle eventually was briefly handed over to a new protagonist, Aaron Cross, portrayed by Jeremy Renner in The Bourne Legacy. A television show titled Treadstone was created to tell the story of the titular agency behind the program but was canceled after one season.
- Created by
- Robert Ludlum
- Character(s)
- Jason Bourne , Marie Helena Kreutz , Nicolette Parsons , Ward Abbott , Nykwanna Wombosi , Aaron Cross , Dr. Marta Shearing