You’re no doubt familiar with National Treasure, the 2004 over-the-top film starring Nicolas Cage as a treasure hunter named Benjamin Franklin Gates who steals the Declaration of Independence because it holds a hidden clue to some greater treasure.
Some critics had the audacity to describe it as dumb and overly implausible. Those words accurately describe the movie, but the film’s ridiculous premise—concocted by the writing duo the Waverleys and conveyed with perfection by Cage—is the heart of what makes the movie so great. It is, in my opinion, one of the most enjoyable films ever made. To this day, I compare any action flick I see to National Treasure, and National Treasure almost always comes out on top.
I’m not the only one who loves the franchise. Its box office performance spawned a sequel, 2007’s National Treasure: Book of Secrets and, more recently, a short-lived Disney+ spinoff series. Rumors of a third film starring Cage have also been bandied about for over a decade. In a recent interview with ScreenRant, however, the actor apparently crushed any hope that we’ll see him in National Treasure 3 anytime soon.
“Here we go! See, you’re the one that brings these things up and they go out and they eclipse everything else,” he said. “No, there is no National Treasure 3. If you want to find treasure, don’t look at Disney, okay? It’s not there.”
This is, simply, a big bummer. The good news is that Disney does have some treasure remaining—I’m talking, of course, about the first National Treasure film—which we can rewatch to our hearts’ delight on Disney+.
