No one can disagree that Disney’s National Treasure franchise should have gone the route of its Pirates of the Caribbean saga. With a well known actor such as Nicolas Cage at the center and endless stories of historical adventures from both fact and fiction to draw from, the fact that there have been no sequels in this franchise since 2007 has been a tremendous missed opportunity for the House of Mouse. As National Treasure 3 continues to languish in development hell, let's dive into its details and see how far along, if at all, this long-awaited sequel National Treasure 3 is.
In the 2000s and 2010s, Disney was experimenting with quite a few adventure films, hoping to turn them into franchises with high life expectancies. While some (such as Pirates of the Caribbean) were an undoubted success, others (such as John Carter, Prince of Persia, and The Sorcerer's Apprentice) were not. National Treasure falls smack dab in the middle here; successful enough that it spawned one sequel, but a failure considering that Disney never managed to capitalize on its success.
There have been two National Treasure films so far, both directed by Jon Turteltaub and both featuring the same protagonists. In the first National Treasure (2004), Nicolas Cage’s Ben Gates is a treasure hunter who is sucked into a conspiracy involving America’s founding fathers. With his friends Riley Poole and Dr. Abigail Chase, Gates races against time to steal the Declaration of Independence before a former acquaintance can use it for his own nefarious reasons. National Treasure 2 (2007) finds Gates and friends in search of the lost cities of gold to clear his family name. The globe-trotting adventure sees the group go up against a black market dealer who wants to tarnish Gate’s family name and claim the treasure for himself.
The first National Treasure debuted to good reviews and made a respectable enough box office to warrant a sequel. The second one was a smash hit, making more than half a billion dollars in the face of middling reviews, showing the longevity and the power of the franchise. As a result, it always seemed natural that Disney was going to try to make a third feature as soon as possible. In 2008, after the sequel debuted, both Jon Turtletaub and Jerry Bruckheimer said the threequel was in development and was in the writing phase.
The next ten years or so would see several iterations of the script being submitted and Disney not being on board with any of them. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer would bring in writers who would develop a script, but Disney would be unimpressed, forcing Bruckheimer to the drawing board once more. At the same time, Cage would appear to be interested but would then backtrack, hinting that his time as Ben Gates was done. As Disney found its new reliable cash cows in Marvel and Star Wars, it put the trilogy on the back burner, presumably due to the fact that in the age of superheroes, it was going to be a hard sell.
In January 2020, after years of development hell, it was announced that a third film was officially moving forward with a script from Chris Bremner. Jerry Bruckheimer was set to return as producer, and the original cast was expected to return as well. Cage was once again on board, and it was expected that the film would go into pre-production soon. But once more, everything came to a grinding halt.
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It was at this time that the development of the threequel was further complicated by the Disney+ series, National Treasure: Edge of History (2022). As development on the trilogy had stalled, Disney moved forward with this series to see if fans were still invested in the franchise. The series ran for one season, and two important characters from the films made cameo appearances in it. The cameo appearances forced fans to wonder if the series was considered a part of the canon moving forward. As he turned in his draft of the script, writer Ted Elliot assuaged fan concerns by explicitly stating that the series will indeed be canon and its events might be referenced in the film as well. Elliot is the latest writer to contribute to the film and is famous for developing the first four Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
It was only this month that Bruckheimer once again reiterated that Cage remained on board and that he will absolutely be part of the third film. He also stated, for the umpteenth time, that the script was just about done.
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Thus, it is a damn shame that Disney could not make this franchise work. Even though the first film was a great success and its sequel an even bigger hit, Disney and Cage couldn't really work out how to progress the story forward and make the franchise something akin to Pirates of the Caribbean, which became a global sensation in every sense of the word. This is why the third film continues to languish in creative limbo, even though 18 years have passed since we last saw Cage’s Ben Gates.
With Jerry Bruckheimer constantly providing updates, it can be gleaned that Disney and the producers both want to make the film happen, but somehow it hasn't panned out yet. The development has not progressed from the script phase, and spending close to 18 years on the script means the film was never the priority of the people who wanted to make it. However, this is Hollywood, and when the stars align, they do so unexpectedly.
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So, let's hope that Disney is able to solve whatever haunts this franchise as soon as possible. At the same time, we must be cautiously optimistic. Until Disney announces new supporting cast members and reveals filming locations, we should expect this movie to remain stuck in limbo for a few more years — at least until Disney decides it needs another Nicolas Cage adventure to fill its release schedule.
