Tommy Lee Jones Joins Bourne 5

As Universal preps the untitled fifth Bourne movie to go before cameras later this summer, it’s been revealed that Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones is joining the cast.

Variety was the first to report the news, noting that Jones may play a senior officer at the CIA. Matt Damon is returning to topline as amnesiac assassin Jason Bourne, with Julia Stiles also expected to come aboard and reprise the role of covert agent Nicky Parsons.

Alicia Vikander, who broke out in a big way earlier this year playing artificially intelligent android Ava in Ex Machina, is also in talks to come aboard in the lead female role opposite Damon.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but Viggo Mortensen (the Lord of the Rings trilogy) was at one point being courted for the role of an assassin hunting Bourne around the globe in the wake of The Bourne Ultimatum.

This is a bit of a return to form for the popular spy franchise, given that Damon and co-writer-director Paul Greengrass (penning the new story with Christopher Rouse) are both back for the fifth installment. The fourth, Tony Gilroy-directed The Bourne Legacy, focused on a new spy played by Jeremy Renner, who was a part of a sister program to Bourne’s and found himself on a dangerous mission of survival in the wake of Bourne’s intelligence leak.

As for Jones, he seems to be taking on a familiar role of the behind-the-desk higher-up ordering Bourne’s head on a platter – Edward Norton, Chris Cooper, Brian Cox and David Strathairn have all played similar characters in previous franchise entries. Still, he’s a talented thesp, and it will be a joy to watch him in a summer blockbuster as opposed to the more low-key fare he’s been prioritizing in recent years.

The fifth Bourne movie will arrive on July 29, 2016.