It Sounds Like National Treasure 3 Is Actually Happening
What’s Nicolas Cage going to steal this time?
The 2000s introduced a wave of new franchises. Harry Potter drew crowds in droves, Marvel tried something new called a “Cinematic Universe,” and The Lord of the Rings took epic filmmaking to bold new heights. But for every successful series, a few petered out after one or two movies, like Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Inspector Gadget, and The Chronicles of Narnia.
One such franchise was National Treasure, the American-history-themed mystery thriller starring Nicolas Cage. The first movie, from 2004, is mostly remembered for the line-turned-meme “I’m going to steal the Declaration of Independence,” while the second, 2007’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets, had our characters heroically kidnap the president. Now, it looks like the franchise could be revived for a belated third installment.
During a recording of the remarkably popular National Treasure Hunt podcast, Jon Turteltaub, the director of the first two movies, revealed that a third one is officially in development. “I was thinking about mentioning this tonight, I’ll say it tonight,” he said. “It’s happening. You’re the first people I have said this out loud to.”
Rumors of a third National Treasure movie have swirled for years. In 2020, producer Jerry Bruckheimer told Collider that a script was being written, and in 2022, star Justin Bartha confirmed to People that he’d read it. Now, Turteltaub says it’s actually happening.
“It’s finally real. Now, it’s ‘Hollywood real,’ meaning things can happen,” he said. “Nic gets hit by a bus, there’s no National Treasure. If I get hit by a bus, there’s probably a National Treasure. Welcome to Hollywood, that’s Hollywood.”
Nicolas Cage is on board for National Treasure 3.
National Treasure fever hasn’t gone away. While the third movie was in limbo, a spinoff series called National Treasure: Edge of History hit Disney+ in 2022. It was okay, but it didn’t make a splash and was missing one key element: Nicolas Cage. But according to Turteltaub, Cage is down to appear in National Treasure 3, and all parties, including Cage, producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and the higher-ups at Disney, are content with the script. So this update does seem like the one fans have been waiting for.
We may also already know what the movie will be about. At the end of Book of Secrets, the president tells Cage’s character, Ben Gates, to look at page 47 in the legendary Book. In the movie’s final moments, the president asks him what he thought of the page, and Ben replies, “It’s life-altering, sir.” Could a third movie finally reveal what he learned, or will we get a whole new historical mystery for Ben to explore? It’s been a long wait, but we may actually get an answer soon.
