Nicolas Cage and the original movie’s cast will return for National Treasure 3, the film’s director confidently declares. A surprise hit in 2003, grossing $347 million on a budget of $100 million, Jon Turteltaub’s family-friendly action film starred Cage as a historian leading a quest for treasure using a map hidden on the Declaration of Independence. National Treasure: Book of Secrets followed in 2007, grossing $459 million, but another National Treasure sequel has yet to materialize (though the franchise was expanded with the Disney+ show National Treasure: Edge of History).

Recent updates have indicated that National Treasure 3 is far from dead, however, and further hope is being fueled by Turteltaub, who recently expressed confidence that the original cast, including Cage, will come back for another movie. Turteltaub cautions, however, that the clock is ticking on getting that cast together. Check out his remarks below (via National Treasure Hunt podcast):

100%. … 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.

Turteltaub’s Remarks Contradict Cage’s Recent Assessment Of National Treasure 3

Nicolas Cage talking while the Declaration of Independence is the background in National Treasure imageCustom Image By SR Image Editor

Turteltaub may be confident that National Treasure 3 will happen, and that Cage will be a part of it, but this might come as news to Cage, who recently struck a much more pessimistic note when asked about chances of a return as Benjamin Franklin Gates. Speaking to Screen Rant in March, Cage flatly shot down talk of another National Treasure sequel, conveying annoyance at the question even being asked:

Here we go! See, you’re the one that brings these things up and they go out and they eclipse everything else. No, there is no National Treasure 3. If you want to find treasure, don’t look at Disney, okay? It’s not there.

Cage’s own involvement in National Treasure 3 may still be up in the air, but the movie does seem to be moving along in the development process, if slowly. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer recently gave his own confident, yet cautious, statement about the sequel’s status in an interview with MovieWeb:

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.

Turteltaub’s new points about National Treasure 3 are well-taken. It has been over 20 years since the original film, and the culture has changed. Those new realities were reflected in the recent spinoff National Treasure: Edge of History, with its diverse casting. A new franchise movie could feature a diverse cast, while still bringing back Cage, Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha. Turteltaub makes a necessary point when reminding audiences that the original cast is not getting any younger. This could also be a message to Disney that, if they want the movie to happen, they should speed things up.