National Treasure 3 is officially moving forward. Director Jon Turteltaub confirmed the long-rumored third film in Disney’s treasure-hunting franchise is in development. A script now exists that Disney has already approved.
Turteltaub made the announcement during a live recording of the National Treasure Hunt podcast in Philadelphia, a show built around the two existing films. “I was thinking about mentioning this tonight, I’ll say it tonight,” he told the audience.
“It’s happening,” he continued. “You’re the first people I have said this out loud to.”
What Turteltaub said about national treasure 3
The director, who also helmed 2007’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets, was careful to temper expectations while still calling the project real. “It’s finally real,” he said. “Now, it’s ‘Hollywood real,’ meaning things can happen.”
“Nic gets hit by a bus, there’s no National Treasure,” he said. “If I get hit by a bus, there’s probably a National Treasure. Welcome to Hollywood, that’s Hollywood.”
Turteltaub said the team “finally have a script that I like,” and that Disney has told him it “sounds like a movie we can make.” That approval marks the furthest the project has gotten since fans first started asking about a sequel.
The wait has stretched nearly two decades since the last film. No release date, production start, or formal cast list has been announced.
His comments about Cage suggest the actor remains central to any new installment. Cage’s return has not been formally confirmed alongside the script news, however, and Turteltaub stopped short of naming a start date.
The franchise so far
The original National Treasure premiered in 2004 with Nicolas Cage as historian Ben Gates. Gates steals the Declaration of Independence to trace a map leading to a centuries-old treasure. He races against his former colleague Ian Howe, played by Sean Bean, who wants the map for himself.
The two films in the series have grossed more than $800 million at the global box office combined. That total has kept the franchise on Disney’s radar for a follow-up, even as the gap between films stretched on.
Turteltaub’s confirmation is the clearest sign yet that Disney sees a theatrical future for the property beyond streaming. Disney extended the story in a different direction in 2022 with National Treasure: Edge of History, a Disney+ spin-off series starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The show followed a new generation of treasure hunters rather than bringing back Cage’s character directly. It gave the studio a way to keep the property active while a theatrical sequel remained unconfirmed.
With a script now in hand and studio buy-in in place, the project moves from rumor to active development. Turteltaub’s own framing suggests a greenlight and a release date are still separate milestones, though.
For now, the confirmation itself is the news. After years of speculation, a third film has cleared its first real hurdle.