Disney+ has been killing the original content game lately with their seemingly endless new entries in the Star Wars and Marvel universes. However, long before they acquired those mega properties, one of their most successful franchises was National Treasure, and now it appears the new series set in the films’ universe has just started shooting.
The star of the upcoming Disney+ series, Lisette Alexís Gutiérrez, took to her Instagram to celebrate the start of production on this new treasure hunt adventure. What is featured in the post are two images and one video, all similar to each other, of Gutiérrez sitting in front of her trailer with her characters’ name Jess behind her. The actress seems very excited to be a part of this series and the caption accompanying the post is, “here we go!!!!”. Also, even though she is dressed very casually in the photo, it is interesting to note that she is wearing a jacket with “Virgin River Hotel and Casino” written on it which is based in Nevada.
Not much is known about this series other than it follows Jess who is a brilliant DREAMer that embarks on the adventure of a lifetime to uncover the truth about her family’s mysterious past and a lost Pan-American treasure. Whether that Nevada based casino is one of the locations of the show remains to be seen, but this series looks to recapture the magic of the original two films. With a story description like that, the show is off to a good start.
Those films followed historian Ben Gates' played by Nicholas Cage and the series has made over $700 million at the worldwide box office over the course of its two films. There is no word on how this series will connect to the films, if at all, or if Cage’s Gates will be involved in some way, but hopefully this series can more than hold over-anxious fans until a third film starring Cage is made. A third film in the franchise has been in development for a while now and is something that producer Jerry Bruckheimer has talked with Collider about in the past.
The last entry in the series was 2007’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets and the series was made famous for its memorable escalation moments like stealing The Declaration of Independence or kidnapping the President of the United States. Along with Gutiérrez, this new series is set to star Zuri Reed, Jordan Rodrigues, Antonio Cipriano, Jake Austin Walker, Lyndon Smith, and the recently added Catherine Zeta-Jones who will play a “badass billionaire” named Billie. The series will also be directed by Mira Nair with original director of the franchise Jon Turteltaub and Bruckheimer serving as executive producers on the project.
This series still does not have a release window at this time, but since it has just begun filming we should expect it on Disney+ some time next year in 2023. National Treasure was Disney’s answer to Indiana Jones and helped give modern moviegoers a renewed interest in the action-adventure genre. Hopefully this new show can do the same and for all the latest news on the National Treasure series, stick with Collider.