Jason Bourne almost went the Wolverine route, with how the studios wanted to milk these IPs to the last drop.
Hugh Jackman needed LUBE for Wolverine
The only film that has come out of the Marvel Studios banner this year is Deadpool & Wolverine. The movie has been a saving grace for the studios that seemed to be going downhill after the Endgame era. And bringing in two fan-favorite characters like Deadpool and Wolverine was just the perfect recipe needed to make it happen.
While Hugh Jackman had previously announced that he was done with Wolverine for good after Logan, Deadpool 3 and the prospect of what it could be was too good an opportunity to pass on. The film's plot was okay, but it was the nostalgia of seeing so many old characters come together that really sold it to audiences. And it's not just Marvel that had the idea to milk a fan-favorite character; others, like the Bourne series, also had a similar idea.
Matt Damon took on the role of Jason Bourne for the first time with The Bourne Identity back in 2002. The spy espionage franchise saw four other films, three of which Damon starred in, and Jeremy Renner took the lead in one – The Bourne Legacy (2012). The final film in the series, Jason Bourne (2016), saw Damon return to the franchise after nearly a decade, although he initially had no plans to do so. Matt Damon told The New York Times in 2016:
