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Nicolas Cage is expected to reprise his beloved role of rogue historian Benjamin Gates in another installment of National Treasure.
Director Jon Turteltaub confirmed on Friday, August 21, that National Treasure 3 is moving forward, telling the “National Treasure Hunt” podcast at a live event that “it’s happening.”
“I have not said anything before this, but you deserve to have the scoop,” he said, per The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Turteltaub explained that the audience was “the first people I have said this out loud to” in public. The director, however, shared that there could be hurdles the crew has to face before filming.
“It’s finally real. Now, it’s Hollywood real, meaning things could happen,” he said. “Nic gets hit by a bus, there’s no National Treasure 3. If I get hit by a bus, there’s probably a National Treasure 3. Welcome to Hollywood.”
Turteltaub claimed that an already-written screenplay has been approved by him and Disney, noting that “to whatever extent we can, everyone’s back.”
National Treasure follows treasure hunter and cryptographer Benjamin (Cage), who uncovers a plot to steal the Declaration of Independence — but no one at the FBI believed him. Benjamin then decided to protect the document by stealing it.
In 2007, Cage returned as Benjamin alongside Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Jon Voight and Harvey Keitel. Cage explained at the time that he decided to pursue the sequel because he felt it met his standard of being “at least as good” as the initial film.
“I wanted to make sure that we could go in a direction that would raise the stakes, and also hopefully be more interesting,” Cage said of the sequel during a 2007 press conference. “They said, ‘We have to ratchet it up from stealing the Declaration of Independence, so we thought you should kidnap the president of the United States.’ … I got nervous. Then, I started thinking about it, and I started laughing, and I realized that that was the joy of it — that it was funny and it was absurd.”
After the sequel’s release, Disney+ debuted a spinoff series titled National Treasure: Edge of History in 2022. The show centered around a new set of characters and was led by Jess Valenzuela (Lisette Olivera). Two years later, Cage shut down rumors that National Treasure 3 would be happening.
“No, there is no National Treasure 3,” Cage said in a 2024 interview with Screen Rant. “Here we go! See, you’re the one that brings these things up and they go out and they eclipse everything else. No, there is no National Treasure 3. If you want to find treasure, don’t look at Disney, OK? It’s not there.”
