National Treasure is one of Disney’s most beloved modern franchises, and ever since the announcement of a new Disney+ series, fans have been eagerly awaiting a first look at the upcoming show. The series has been filming for almost a month, and now Disney has given us a golden first official image of the cast.
The image is of Lisette Alexís Gutiérrez’s Jess Morales, Jordan Rodrigues’ Ethan, Zuri Reed’s Tasha, and Antonio Cipriano’s Oren. Our new set of characters seem to be doing some hard time in jail as they are seen in classic orange jumpsuits, with tally marks on the wall behind them. However, as a group they either look disinterested or not concerned with the setting they are in. Oren is on his phone, and it appears that the cell they are in is open, so do not expect them to be there for too long. It is also important to note that Jess is holding onto a necklace that has some kind of gold coin or medallion attached to the end of it.
Still not much is known about the plot of the series, but Jess has been described as a brilliant DREAMer. Like a certain other treasure hunter in the series, she embarks on an adventure of a lifetime to uncover the truth about her family’s mysterious past and a lost Pan-American treasure. The necklace Jess is wearing is most likely tied to her family, and that aesthetic is very reminiscent of adventurer Nathan Drake from the Uncharted franchise. While her partners in crime seem very indifferent in what they are doing, from Jess’ facial expression alone, she seems very determined to get to the bottom of this treasure.
National Treasure as a franchise so far has had two films that have grossed almost $800 million worldwide combined, and were Disney's answer to Indiana Jones. Those films starred Nicolas Cage as historian Ben Gates, and the series was made infamous for its big escalation moments like stealing The Declaration of Independence or kidnapping the President of the United States. While there has been a third film in development for a while now, there has been no word yet on how or if this new series would connect to the films in any way. This series would mark the first new entry in the franchise since 2007’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
The new series is being directed by Mira Nair, with original franchise director Jon Turteltaub and Jerry Bruckheimer serving as producers on the project. Also, on top of the four main cast members in the image, Catherine Zeta-Jones is playing a “badass billionaire” and fellow treasure hunter named Billie.
With the series deep in production now we are sure to hear more information about the show soon like a release date or maybe even a new trailer. The caption accompanying the teaser image calls it “quite the discovery” and there are sure to be more to follow in the future.