‘National Treasure’ Director Confirms Third Movie with Nicolas Cage Is ‘Finally Real’

A third ‘National Treasure’ film is officially in the works, director Jon Turteltaub announced, with Nicolas Cage set to return as Ben Gates.

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National Treasure director Jon Turteltaub recently announced that a third film in the heist adventure franchise is “finally real”

He indicated that Nicolas Cage, who led the 2004 and 2007 films, will return to the sequel

Turteltaub made the announcement to a live audience for the National Treasure Hunt podcast

Could Nicolas Cage be stealing the Declaration of Independence again?

A third National Treasure movie is officially in the works, according to director Jon Turteltaub, who helmed the 2004 heist adventure film starring Cage, 62. The filmmaker made an announcement at a live taping of the National Treasure Hunt podcast on Friday, Aug. 21.

“It’s happening,” Turteltaub told the crowd, per a video shared on social media by the podcast. Following the 2007 sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets, rumors of a third installment in development with franchise distributor Disney have been circling for years.

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“You’re the first people I’ve said this out loud to,” announced Turteltaub. “I have not said anything before this, but you deserve to have the scoop… We finally have a script that I like.”

A National Treasure 3 is, he clarified, “finally real. Now, it’s ‘Hollywood real,’ meaning things could happen. Nic [Cage] gets hit by a bus, there’s no National Treasure 3. If I get hit by a bus, there’s probably a National Treasure 3. Welcome to Hollywood.”

PEOPLE has reached out to Disney for comment.

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National Treasure, produced by Turteltaub and Jerry Bruckheimer and costarring Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Sean Bean and Christopher Plummer, centered on Cage’s Ben Gates, a historian and cryptologist who follows a treasure map on the back of the United States Declaration of Independence.

The sequel featured Helen Mirren, Ed Harris and Bruce Greenwood. National Treasure: Edge of History, a TV series continuation costarring Lisette Olivera and Catherine Zeta-Jones, premiered on Disney+ in 2022.

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Turteltaub made no casting announcements beyond Cage returning as Ben Gates. He quipped that “high expectations” will be a factor in the third installment, jokingly calling the assembled National Treasure Hunt fans “the worst audience for this movie.”

Kruger, who played archivist Abigail Chase, Cage’s on-screen love interest, in the National Treasure movies, joined the Oscar winner in this year’s MGM+ and Prime Video series Spider-Noir.

Cage will reprise the role of superheroic Ben Reilly in the upcoming animated sequel Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (in theaters June 18, 2027). He will next play John Madden in the football biopic Madden (on Prime Video Nov. 18).

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