They Kept Quiet For Over 20 Years, But What Just Was Confirmed Changes Everything

Benjamin Gates is back on the hunt.

National Treasure director Jon Turteltaub confirmed that a third movie in the adventure franchise is finally in the works. “It’s happening,” he told the National Treasure Hunt podcast at a live event in Philadelphia on Friday (per The Philadelphia Inquirer).

“I have not said anything before this, but you deserve to have the scoop,” the filmmaker said, noting that the audience was “the first people I have said this out loud to” in public.

Turteltaub confirmed that Nicolas Cage, who starred as treasure hunter Ben Gates in the first two films, is expected to return in National Treasure 3. However, he also noted that obstacles could still potentially prevent the movie from moving forward.

“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 told the crowd that a screenplay approved by him and Disney has already been written, and he noted that “to whatever extent we can, everyone’s back.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Disney and Cage for comment.

National Treasure starred Cage, Diane Kruger, and Justin Bartha as a treasure-hunting trio who become reluctantly involved with a plot to steal the Declaration of Independence in order to find a vast fortune hidden by the Freemasons. Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, and Sean Bean rounded out the supporting cast.

The original film grossed over $347 million on a reported budget of $100 million despite mixed reviews from critics. It spawned a sequel released in 2007, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, which saw the entire core cast return (besides Bean) and brought Helen Mirren, Ed Harris, and Bruce Greenwood into the fold.

Book of Secrets grossed $459 million at the global box office on a reported $130 million budget. The sequel introduced the Book of Secrets, a classified collection of confidential information passed between presidents. Greenwood’s POTUS told Ben to check out a page of particular interest — Page 47 — and the protagonist eventually described the page as “life-altering” without ever revealing what he saw, which means audiences have been waiting 19 years for resolution on that thread.

National Treasure 3 has been long discussed but remained in development hell for almost two full decades. After years of false starts, Cage told fans during a Reddit AMA in 2022 that there’s little hope for a sequel to move forward. “No, the priority was to turn it into a TV show so I would say probably not,” he said.

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A few months later, Disney announced National Treasure: Edge of History, a Disney+ series set in the same universe as the movies that focused on a new cast of characters. Keitel and Bartha both guested as their respective characters from the films, with the latter character suggesting that he and Ben have been investigating Page 47 from the Book of Secrets. The show was canceled after finishing its first season in 2023.