Nicolas Cage: National Treasure 3 "Probably Not" Happening

The treasure map may have reached a dead-end for Nicolas Cage: the star says National Treasure 3 is "probably not" going to happen. Cage played historian and treasure hunter Benjamin Gates in 2004's National Treasure and 2007 sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets, ending with a tease about the puzzling Page 47 in the President's Book of Secrets. But the mystery may go unsolved: Cage says another National Treasure is on the backburner because of the Disney+ spinoff series with a younger cast.

Asked if there will be a National Treasure 3 during a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" Q&A for his new movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Cage answered, "No, the priority was to turn it into a TV show so I would say probably not." 

The development hell of National Treasure 3 isn't quite ancient history, dating back to 2008 when Bruckheimer confirmed the third movie during a Disney exhibitor appearance late that year. Jerry Bruckheimer Films continued to develop the threequel with Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean and The Lone Ranger), but by 2016, then-Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed the third movie had yet to receive the official greenlight. 

Cage recently hinted his box office track record may have buried National Treasure 3. 

"The phone stopped ringing. It was like, 'What do you mean we're not doing National Treasure 3? It's been 14 years. Why not?'" Cage told GQ in March. "Well, [Disney's] Sorcerer's Apprentice didn't work, and Ghost Rider didn't really sell tickets. And Drive Angry, that just came and went."

Cage continued, "I enjoy making movies like Pig and Leaving Las Vegas more than I enjoy making movies like National Treasure. When I talk about fair-weather friends in Hollywood, I'm not talking about Jerry [Bruckheimer]. I'm talking about Disney. They're like an ocean liner. Once they go in a certain direction, you've got to get a million tugboats to try to swivel it back around."

Disney recently dug up the first look at National Treasure, the streaming series about the next generation of puzzle-solving treasure hunters: Jess Morales (Total Eclipse's Lisette Alexis), Tasha (Flatbush Misdemeanors's Zuri Reed), Ethan (Lady Bird's Jordan Rodrigues), and Oren (City on a Hill's Antonio Cipriano). The Disney+ Original series also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as a skilled treasure hunter entangled in Jess' adventure to uncover her own buried history, as well as the truth about her parents and her connection to a long-lost Pan-American treasure.

National Treasure and National Treasure: Book of Secrets are streaming on Disney+.