The Canceled Jason Bourne Spin-Off Series You Didn't Realize Existed

It shouldn't be all that surprising that action franchises built around one unstoppable hero have a tough time extending their cinematic worlds beyond that central figure. Lionsgate is the latest studio to struggle in that regard, with John Wick himself proving to be the biggest problem with building out that particular cinematic universe. Try as they might, the studio and its burgeoning on-screen world can't escape the shadow of the Baba Yaga, as evidenced by the disappointment that was TV spin-off "The Continental." With the latest movie spin-off, "Ballerina," struggling at the box office, it looks like the John Wick saga might be dead in the water — at least until Keanu Reeves agrees to come back for one more round.

But the "John Wick" saga is far from the first action franchise to encounter this issue. Just look at the Jason Bourne films. Back in 2002, director Doug Liman and star Matt Damon basically reinvented the action genre with "The Bourne Identity." An adaptation of Robert Ludlum's 1980 novel of the same name, the film served as a deconstruction of the action hero while simultaneously reinvigorating that archetype. Damon's Jason Bourne is a highly-skilled assassin with no memory of who he is or how he became such an unstoppable force. As he questions who he is and who he's supposed to be, so too did the movie industry re-evaluate what an action hero and an action movie should be.

This, alongside a grounded, gritty tone and some of the most intense combat scenes ever shot, made "The Bourne Identity" a seminal entry in action movie history, and a glut of similar films followed, with even Batman and James Bond following a similar rubric with "Batman Begins" (2005) and "Casino Royale" (2006), respectively. The Bourne sequels were notable for maintaining the saga's quality, but after the third film, Universal decided to try expanding the Bourne cinematic universe with lackluster results. 2012's "The Bourne Legacy" swapped Damon for Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross, and audiences weren't all that impressed. But even "Legacy" pales in comparison to "Treadstone," an action drama series set in the Bourne universe that lasted just one season.

By the end of 2007's "The Bourne Ultimatum," Matt Damon's Jason Bourne had discovered the truth of his origins as a highly-trained agent from the shadowy Operation Treadstone. This black-ops arm of the CIA was created to train elite assassins, and Bourne becomes its greatest product. After "The Bourne Legacy," Universal tried to get things back on track with 2016's "Jason Bourne," which saw the return of Damon's hero but was so bad it made some fans reconsider their love of the franchise. This wasn't a good sign. If bringing back the man himself wasn't going to fix things, what was? In the minds of executives, a Bourne-less Bourne TV show was apparently the answer.

"Treadstone" was that show. The action drama series debuted on USA Network on October 15, 2019, and took audiences on an exploration of Operation Treadstone's history while telling several modern day tales based around black-ops agents produced by the program. It starred Jeremy Irvine as John Randolph Bentley, an early Treadstone agent who, at the beginning of the series, is shown being held captive by Soviet agents in 1973. He then escapes before the series jumps forward in time to witness multiple Treadstone sleeper agents being "awakened" in order to carry out their missions. These agents include Tara Coleman (played by "The Pitt" actor Tracy Ifeachor), Soyun Park (Han Hyo-joo), and Doug McKenna (Brian J. Smith).

Throughout the series, we go back and forth in time as we follow the main cast in a suitably international odyssey that mimicked the globe-hopping adventures undertaken by Jason Bourne himself. The show also made reference to several events from the movies and was touted as arising from "the world of Jason Bourne," but was very much its own thing otherwise. Matt Damon's character does not show up in the series, which might have something to do with why it was cancelled after just one season. In May 2020, USA Network pulled the plug, resulting in yet another failed attempt at expanding the Bourne cinematic universe.

After USA Network cancelled "Treadstone," Deadline reported that the show had simply been too "expensive while not drawing enough eyeballs." But there was also the issue of it not being that great. "Treadstone" isn't included in /Film's ranking of the Jason Bourne movies, but if we slotted it in there just to include every project in that franchise, it wouldn't be very high. The show has a 50% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, which isn't the worst the Tomatometer has ever doled out, but some of the reviews certainly weren't holding back. 

RogerEbert.com writer Brian Tallerico advised audiences to "wipe USA's 'Treadstone' from [their] memory," calling it a "gray mush of things you've seen in better spy shows, and much better spy movies." Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter also wasn't impressed, writing that while "lots of action films require the audience to suspend disbelief," "Treadstone" required them to "saw the tops of their own heads off and remove the gooey blob inside." Still, some reviewers quite liked the show. The Sydney Morning Herald's Brad Newsome called it "compelling" and praised the way it took "Robert Ludlum's Bourne trilogy mythology to places it's never been."

Although "Jason Bourne" had seemingly proved that Bourne himself wasn't the most important element of this cinematic universe, "Treadstone" was always going to struggle to appeal without the man himself. It's like Sony struggling to make hits out of its Spider-Man Universe without Spider-Man. Regardless of how "Jason Bourne" performed, Matt Damon was always a key component of the franchise's initial success, and if a Jason Bourne project didn't work with him, it certainly wasn't going to work without him.