10-Part 'Jason Bourne Meets Jack Ryan' Spy Series Was A Bad Idea From The Start

Published Aug 21, 2026, 11:59 PM EDT Laura Hurley has been writing about the entertainment industry for more than twelve years, after a decade as a content producer and editor at CinemaBlend after writing for WhatCulture and Examiner. Attending events like SCAD TVfest and San Diego Comic-Con over the course of her career, she has been immersed in the world of network, streaming, and cable TV. Ongoing spy TV shows can be difficult to pull off, and hits like The Americans, Jack Ryan, and Slow Horses are few and far between. Another project seemed like it was guaranteed for success, thanks to heavy ties to Matt Damon's successful Bourne Identity franchise. Treadstone, a television prequel/sequel to the films, had an interesting premise to go along with the connection to the movies. Instead, the first and only season proved that good ideas don't always translate to a good finished product. Treadstone premiered on USA Network on September 24, 2019, and would ultimately only run for a ten-episode first season. The format explored the origin story of the black-ops program that created Jason Bourne, as well as how it was operating in the present day. Jeremy Irvine starred as John Randolph Bentley, and he was surrounded by a cast including future The Pitt actress Tracy Ifeachor, Han Hyo-joo, Omar Metwally, Brian J. Smith, and Michelle Forbes, among others. Jason Bourne himself was conspicuously absent, but there were certainly elements of the show that were true to the movies despite almost immediately retconning Jason's Bourne franchise origin. Treadstone was heavily hyped in 2019 as a hot new show; now, circa 2026, the one and only season isn't even available as part of a streaming service subscription. Treadstone Was A Noble Effort That Simply Didn't Work MovieStillsDB Treadstone may have sabotaged itself from the start, when it was billed as a TV show set in the same world as The Bourne Ultimatum that wouldn't actually feature Jason Bourne. Matt Damon's character was certainly referenced over the course of the ten episodes, but his character never made it to the small screen. The Academy Award-winner's participation in the franchise was exclusive to four of the franchise's five theatrical releases. Treadstone had to stand on its own. Movie/Show Year The Bourne Identity 2002 The Bourne Supremacy 2004 The Bourne Ultimatum 2007 The Bourne Legacy 2012 Jason Bourne 2016 Treadstone 2019 The USA Network series did fill out the cast with characters who were reawakened to realize their identities as Treadstone agents, and there was as much action as a fan of the Bourne movies could have hoped for from a cable TV show. Unfortunately, the timing just wasn't right. A few years had passed since the last Bourne movie, so the franchise was out of the cultural zeitgeist. Prime Video's Jack Ryan had also premiered the previous year, so the market for a spy TV show was already being dominated by John Krasinski's show. Plus, USA Network was in the process of moving on from scripted programming by that point in 2019. Popular shows like Psych, Burn Notice, White Collar, and Royal Pains had all ended in the previous few years, while Psych and Mr. Robot ended in 2010. The other remaining shows from the 2010s only lasted a few more years, with Dirty John ending in 2020, and both Queen of the South and The Sinner wrapping in 2021. Even if Treadstone had been a worthy successor to the Bourne movies, a premiere in 2019 may not have been a time when it could have ever worked. Treadstone's Dual Timeline Was An Intriguing Premise That The Show Wasted MovieStillsDB To the show's credit, Treadstone did elevate the story beyond a straightforward spy format that could have been difficult to sustain. USA even managed to make the reveal about the first season's dual timeline a twist, since much of the early promotion focused on the action rather than the fact that Jeremy Irvine's CIA Agent John Randolph Bentley was operating in the 1970s and became the original Treadstone agent, while most of the others were operating in present day. Unfortunately, even Treadstone didn't make the best use of the dual timeline, and there wasn't time for growing pains in a ten-episode season. Considering that USA had given Treadstone a straight-to-series order without going through the traditional pilot process, writer/creator Tim Kring and executive producers Ramin Rahrani should have had the time to strike the right balance between past and present. The cancellation after one season meant that the show never got the chance to improve the dual timeline approach, so there's no saying if Treadstone would have tweaked its own premise in a second season on USA. It is clear that even though a show set in the Bourne film world had some natural advantages going into it, there were too many factors working against it for Treadstone to ever become a spy TV success story. Release Date 2019 - 2018 Network USA Network Directors Alex Graves, Brad Anderson, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Wayne Che Yip Cast David Michaels Tom Becker