‘National Treasure 3’ development could be a wake up call for the franchise to bring Nicolas Cage back.

Nicolas Cage deserves at least one more installment to his action adventure National Treasure franchise. However, even after 17 years of the release of the second installment, the updates on the movie franchise have been vehemently silent. While most fans want National Treasure to be a trilogy, Cage would need an addition of one more movie to complement that.

Nicolas Cage with his co-stars in National Treasure. Credit: Walt Disney Pictures
National Treasure has been quite a success, but Disney somewhat moved away from the movie series. While the studio put the Cage’s franchise into a coma, a new Dinesy show, National Treasure: Edge of History, was at work but not featuring Cage. After one season, the show was canceled. Now, fans finally have a positive update on the original franchise.

National Treasure 3 Is In Early Development

Nicolas Cage in National Treasure. Credit: Walt Disney Pictures
National Treasure 3 is reportedly getting the desired momentum after 17 years. Since the release of National Treasure: Book of Secrets, the second installment to the franchise, the movie series has been out of the picture and fans have long wondered if a third movie was on the card.

Jon Turteltaub, the director of the movies in the franchise who also has The Meg to his credit, revealed details of a third National Treasure movie during his recent appearance on the National Treasure Hunt podcast. “It’s being written,” Turteltaub said of the third installment.

That doesn’t mean it will be finished and be great, but if it’s being written, it will definitely be momentous when we read it. We all know what’s in it. But there’s a very, very good writer writing it right now who tends to write really good movies. If the script comes out close to good and you can see the finish line from where you are, we’re making the movie.

Previously, producer Jerry Bruckheimer gave fans a faint update on the movie, “Well, we hope there’s a National Treasure 3. We’ve been working on it for quite a while ” (via ComicBook.com). Now, it all comes down to the outcome of the script. If Disney greenlights the draft, we might get another National Treasure movie. Further, the progress of the movie will give us more updates in the coming days.

Will Nicolas Cage Return to National Treasure 3?

Nicolas Cage in National Treasure. Credit: Walt Disney Pictures
Nicolas Cage led the movie series playing Benjamin Franklin Gates, a treasure hunter and cryptographer. As he was not featured in the Disney series based on the movie series, it is not irrational to suspect the return of the actor in the action-adventure movies. But if the movie gets past the development, the director said, Cage will return with “100%” assurance from the director.

We do have to hurry because people are both getting older and less interested, and lives are changing and all that. And the world changes. Our culture is changing. A lot. Since the first movie was made. Socially, certainly politically, and definitely, our language, and different cultural changes we’ve had.

And you’ve got to make sure you’re in touch with all that and moving with it, and doing things the right way. … It’s not as easy to just do another one. You’ve got to take a lot into account. I can tell you, 20 years later, Justin Bartha is a lot better looking.

The franchise has done well at the box office, earning $788.6 million worldwide (per The Numbers). However, Disney had little faith in another movie in the franchise. Cage, who has been making a splash with his several recent projects, including The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Dream Scenario, and Arcadian, has teased his interest in returning to the franchise as well. In a chat with Deadline, the actor revealed that he was surprised that Disney kept pushing the project over the years.