There have been maybe three good prequels in the history of film. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the flashback scenes in The Godfather Part II involving Don Vito that are so good it could have been a stand alone movie, and Temple of Doom, which I still think gets a bad rap.

That’s it. That’s the list of worthwhile film prequels in its entirety. Hopefully Bourne can give us a fourth quality prequel because Matt Damon is suggesting that this is the direction they’re headed in.

I can sort of understand why they’re considering a prequel. I’m a huge Bourne fan and would love to see another installment, but even I have to admit that the premise has pretty much run its course. Guys go after Bourne, Bourne alternately evades and kills his pursuers while reclaiming bits of his lost memory, Bourne has a badass fight where he kills a guy with the help of a common household item, throw in a car chase, Bourne eventually wins, and cue the Moby music. It’s fun, but you can only tweek that same general plot so many times.

That said, a prequel seems a bit curious. Wasn’t Bourne sort of a merciless, murderous a-hole who killed innocent people before he lost his memory? Do we really want to see a movie about that Jason Bourne? Or will the filmmakers mimic Marvel’s treatment of Wolverine for 25 years and use the “memory loss + government conspiracy” angle as a Get Out of Continuity Free card?

“So, this prequel is about the younger Bourne who assassinated innocent people?”

“No, no. Everyone Bourne killed in his past had it coming. He only ever killed terrorist pedophile Nazis.”

“But the second film clearly showed that he–”

“It was a false memory. It was actually the Brian Cox character that killed those people.”

“All right, but what about in the third film’s flashback when he killed–”

“That guy deserved it. He uh… kidnapped the Lindbergh baby, or killed Dr. Richard Kimble’s wife or something. Just go with it, all right?”