Matt Damon had to ''wait for the world to change'' before reprising his role in the 'Bourne' franchise.

The 44-year-old actor hasn't appeared on our screens as Jason Bourne since 2007, when he disappeared at the end of 'The Bourne Ultimatum', but now the Hollywood star is to return to his role and has revealed that his long break from the series was because he was waiting for change.

Speaking to Buzzfeed News about his long absence, Matt explained: ''We always looked at those movies as really about the Bush presidency, and so we kind of had to wait for the world to change.''

Matt's character was absent from 2012's 'The Bourne Legacy', which instead saw Jeremy Renner introduced as the film's hero, agent Aaron Cross.

Matt explained that while he and director Paul Greengrass considered making another 'Bourne' movie every few years, they couldn't think of a new storyline until former US National Security Agency worker Edward Snowden leaked classified information to the media in 2013.

Of the film, Matt said: ''Without giving too much of it away, it's Bourne through an austerity-riddled Europe and in a post-Snowden world.''

He continued: ''It seems like enough has changed, you know? There are all these kinds of arguments about spying and civil liberties and the nature of democracy.''