There’s a debate running through Hollywood over whether studios can still launch an action star theatrically. The recent evidence has not been especially encouraging: Ballerina stalled despite having the John Wick brand behind it, while more and more of the genre has been pushed to streaming, and the list of actors who can open an original action movie only seems to be getting shorter. All of that makes it notable that one of the genre’s most battle-tested producers sees a rumored casting choice as a possible exception.
Speaking on The Town with Matt Belloni, John Wick producer Basil Iwanyk said that if the rumors of Zendaya taking over the Bourne franchise turn out to be true, “that’s game over.” Zendaya’s 2026 has been the kind of year few actors ever experience. She was at the center of Spider-Man: Brand New Day as the film tore through the box office. She also played Athena in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which has become his highest-grossing film, and has Dune: Part Three arriving in December.
What she does after all of that has quietly become one of the more interesting open questions in Hollywood. For the past couple of months, the loudest answer floating around has involved a certain amnesiac spy franchise that Universal has been trying to restart for the better part of a decade. The franchise has grossed roughly $1.6 billion across five films, but it hasn’t produced a new entry since 2016’s Jason Bourne, and the revival Universal announced in 2023 with Edward Berger directing has moved slowly.
Matt Damon has spent this summer’s Odyssey press tour insisting the project is alive, telling the Dan Patrick Show in July that Berger “sent me kind of the first act” and that “It’s really good, so I’m very hopeful that it can happen.” Running parallel to all of that has been Jeff Sneider’s reporting that Zendaya has had discussions with Universal about leading the franchise, later updated to a scenario where Damon and Zendaya appear together. Universal has denied it, and it should be stressed that none of this is confirmed. But the rumor has clearly reached the point where industry figures are being asked about it directly.
During their conversation, Belloni and Iwanyk were discussing why studios have largely retreated from original theatrical action movies. The focus eventually turned to Ballerina, the John Wick spin-off Iwanyk produced, which stalled at around $132 million worldwide last year despite decent reviews. The conclusion some in the industry seemed to draw was that star Ana de Armas couldn’t open an action movie and, by extension, that female-led action had become a risk studios were even less willing to take. Iwanyk pushed back on that logic.
“I think it’s lazy thinking to think, ‘oh, Ana de Armas didn’t work in [Ballerina]’ — I’m not saying you’re [Matt Belloni] lazy thinking—” Iwanyk said, before Belloni clarified his position. “No, but I am saying the studios are lazy. And maybe they are less likely to do one seeing what happened with Ballerina.”
Iwanyk agreed. “Correct. And I think that’s lazy thinking.”
That led Belloni to bring up Zendaya: “Listen, there’s rumors that Zendaya is going to do Bourne. So maybe we’ll see that.” Iwanyk’s response:
“If Zendaya does Bourne, like that’s game over.”
Belloni added, “That’s something that could break through,” and Iwanyk confirmed, “Yeah. In a good way.” The franchise’s identity is unusually tied to Damon, as The Bourne Legacy demonstrated when the Jeremy Renner-led installment failed to launch a new branch in 2012. A handoff structure, if that’s really the plan, would be attempting something the series has already tried once without success.
Credit: Source link