When it comes to Nicolas Cage’s most commercially successful movies of his career, the National Treasure movies remain on top, especially box office earnings-wise. And yet, Disney somehow never made another sequel. After Cage previously shot down hopes of National Treasure 3 ever happening, the franchise’s producer Jerry Bruckheimer is singing a different tune regarding the potential of the treasure hunting series making a comeback.
Although a Disney+ spinoff series for National Treasure with connections to the films came out a couple of years ago, the adventure franchise would most definitely need Nicolas Cage to return as Ben Gates to officially be back in action. Here’s what Jerry Bruckheimer recently said about the return of National Treasure:
Well, we hope there’s a National Treasure 3. We’ve been working on it for quite a while. We have a brilliant writer working on it right now, so hopefully, if we get a script in a timely fashion, we’ll send it to Nic [Cage] and, if he likes it, we’ll make another one. We certainly would like to.
Bruckheimer’s comments were made this week to MovieWeb while the producer was promoting his latest movie, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. His optimism is exciting, but quite the 180 from how Cage spoke about National Treasure 3 back in 2022. The actor was asked about the franchise during a Reddit AMA, here’s what he said:
No, the priority was to turn it into a TV show so I would say probably not.
Between Bruckheimer and Cage’s comments, there are definitely two completely different stories here. Of course, they are two years apart and hey, if there’s a script almost ready to show to Cage nowadays, it seems possible the actor could be interested to return to the franchise and hunt for more American-themed lost gems!
Previously, Cage also shared that he felt that National Treasure 3 did not happen after the 2007 sequel because a couple of his other big movies around that time, like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Ghost Rider, didn’t do well. His co-star Diane Kruger told CinemaBlend in 2022 that no one ever contacted her about National Treasure 3. Earlier this year, Justin Bartha, who starred as Riley in the two National Treasure movies, said there was a script, but director Jon Turteltaub (who helmed both movies in the franchise) “has to feel really comfortable” before diving into another one.
It anything, it sounds like there’s hope for National Treasure yet! In the meantime, you can check out both films with a Disney+ subscription and look forward to upcoming 2024 movies like the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced action flick The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, hitting theaters on April 19.