The Big Picture

• Fans eagerly await a third National Treasure film, teased since 2007 by a mysterious Page 47 clue from the president in National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
• Despite prior eagerness from creators and Disney, development of National Treasure 3 has stalled in a series of script revisions and delays.
• The Disney+ series Edge of History didn't reignite enough interest in the franchise to potentially lead to a long-awaited cinematic sequel.

Earlier this week, Nicolas Cage resurfaced the fan-favorite American History treasure hunting franchise when discussing the possibility of a National Treasure 3. The franchise received a continuation in the form of Disney+'s National Treasure: Edge of History, which premiered in 2022. The series is a clear spin-off set within the same universe as the National Treasure films: 2004's National Treasure and 2007's National Treasure: Book of Secrets. It's now been 17 years since the second movie hit theaters and left audiences with a cliffhanger that strongly implied a third film would be on the way. However, after all this time, the threequel has still not arrived. Although fans of the franchise are hungry for answers and further U.S. history-based adventures helmed by Cage's Benjamin Gates, the possibility of a third film just got a lot slimmer.

'National Treasure: Book of Secrets' Set Up A Third Film Back in 2007

Midway through National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Gates kidnaps the President of the United States (Bruce Greenwood) to access crucial information regarding the eponymous Book. After the president confirms the legendary Book's existence and gives Gates clues about where to find it, he leaves the historian with the vague advice to check out Page 47. This doesn't come up again until the film's finale, after Gates finds the treasure and reports back to the POTUS. The president asks him if he did, in fact, take a look at Page 47. Gates confirms that he did and describes the information on the page as "life-altering," much to the excitement of fans and the confusion of Gates' colleagues, Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger).

Despite this clear segue into a subsequent film that would deliver on the promise of something "life-altering," the concept has still not materialized. The reasons behind the lack of a third film, however, are almost as mysterious as the franchise's clues themselves. After all, both National Treasure films fared well at the box office, and even though critical responses were mixed, the movies garnered sizable fan-followings, particularly among younger viewers. At the time, the franchise almost served as Disney's more family-friendly alternative to the Indiana Jones franchise.

'National Treasure 3' Seemed Like a Sure Bet to Director Jon Turtletaub

Immediately after Book of Secrets' release, the creators seemed eager to lock into a third film. The first two movies' director and producer, Jon Turteltaub stated in a 2008 interview with Sun Media that another sequel was already in the works. Although he further noted that the creative team was taking its time to make sure the story was done right, he seemed confident that the wait would not be too long. Shortly thereafter, Disney also registered the franchise's IP domain, with a third, and perhaps even a fourth film in mind.

As the 2010s came along, though, development on the project seemed to stall. In 2013, Turteltaub said that he expected a third film in production within the next couple of years. The following year, however, franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer noted that a new team was taking over the script, and in 2016, Nicolas Cage told Collider that a script was still being written and fact-checked for historical accuracy. Come 2018, Turteltaub explained that finished versions of the script had been drafted, but that Disney was not yet satisfied. He particularly cited the company's desire to make money, and its lack of faith in National Treasure as a moneymaking franchise.

The COVID-19 Pandemic Derailed Chris Bremner’s Hiring As Screenwriter

Over a decade had gone by at this point, and the situation remained precarious. Then, in early 2020, news about a third film broke once again, this time naming Chris Bremner as the project's definitive new scriptwriter. Bruckheimer, who had just worked with Bremner on Bad Boys For Life, was also confirmed as still producing the film. While this provided some long overdue good news regarding National Treasure 3, it came at the wrong time. 2020 did not go as planned for Hollywood. Although not explicitly reported, it's highly plausible that the messy film slate during the COVID-19 pandemic put the project on hold yet again. No further word regarding Bremner's involvement surfaced, and when a Reddit user asked Nicolas Cage if there would be a third film during an April 2022 AMA thread, he bluntly responded "No, the priority was to turn it into a TV show, so I would say probably not."

Now it's possible that Cage was pulling an Andrew Garfield and lying out of sworn secrecy to Disney. Still, audiences shouldn't hold their breaths. With all the National Treasure development hiccups since 2007 (some more openly explained than others), the prospect of a third film has grown decreasingly likely. When the first National Treasure came out, it was a different time for Disney. The Chronicles of Narnia and Pirates of the Caribbean series proved that adventure-filled movies could be appealing and successful on the big screen even when not tied to a preexisting franchise. Today, it seems that Disney reserves the theater for Marvel, Star Wars, and Pixar releases, with Disney+ serving as a buffer for less fiscally reliable projects.

'Edge of History' Could Have Dashed the Hopes for More 'National Treasure' Films

Fittingly, National Treasure: Edge of History is a Disney+ exclusive series. While the first two episodes feature appearances from franchise-veteran Harvey Keitel, reprising his role as Peter Sadusky, the show primarily focuses on a younger cast of original characters. Nevertheless, ties to the original emerged thorughout the series, as Justin Bartha reprised his role as Riley Poole later in the season, and a rumor circulated stating that Nicolas Cage might be returning as Benjamin Gates in the now-abandoned Season 2.

Edge of History could have served as a springboard to regenerate (or at least gauge) present interest in the franchise before recommitting to a third film. The mystery of Page 47 wasn't solved in the Disney+ series, and it would feel all the more satisfying to see it explored through another cinematic adventure with Cage's Gates once again serving as the primary protagonist. This would be especially true after such a long wait, for despite potential waning interest in the franchise over the years, enough time has passed that National Treasure 3 could maybe feel like a legacy sequel, bringing together nostalgic fans of the early-2000s films along with those newly introduced to the franchise via Disney+. All matters of fan-service, marketability, and development intricacies aside, though, National Treasure still has questions left to answer and stories left to tell, which makes Cage's recent statements about not finding treasure at Disney that much more devastating.

National Treasure is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.

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